Country Standard Time

Chad Price of All and Jon Snodgrass of Armchair Martian combined talents to produce a great, rough sketch of what they could do if they were actually concentrating. This is a series of tunes recorded in 1996-97, lined up back to back with nary a chance to breathe between tracks. It's the kind of music you dream about hearing when you walk into a dusty old bar in the middle of nowhere, having just packed everything you own into a beat up old Chevelle for a cross-country run.

Each song floats by, clocking in at about two minutes each. The vocals are old school Uncle Tupelo, with plenty of nods to the band that sparked the insurgent country movement. Strummed steel acoustics mingle with a big electric sound verging on feedback, giving way to pop-country jangle or quiet ballads. Blue collars hide red necks for most of the characters inhabiting the songs, with odes to God, alcohol and cars. It's all small town blues at heart, but with the right hint of forsaken redemption that makes the best country music so compelling.

-Nick A. Zaino III