The Rock-n-Roll EP

Southeast Michigan's working class poet laureates Dirt Road Logic laid the foundation for their piney, barroom Americana with 2006's Great Lake Heart Ache, a no-nonsense collection of streamlined northern grit that simultaneously wore its heart on its sleeve and a chip on its shoulder. Where Heart Ache echoed the likes of Steve Earle and the Bottle Rockets, phase two for the newly minted trio leans harder on the raw, "countrified" punk of the Old 97's and "Ball and Chain"-era Social Distortion. For most bands, an EP merely serves as a half-hearted shaking out of the pockets to make room for bigger bills, but Dirt Road Logic stocks Rock-N-Roll with seven future encores that could just as easily serve as the lead-off tracks for their next seven albums. The ache is bigger, but so is the attitude, due in part to Kid Rock producer Al Sutton, who has dutifully beefed up the band's (already meaty) sound, resulting in a collection of stadium-ready, neo-classic rock standards that are slick enough for commercial radio and D.I.Y. enough for last call at your favorite small town watering hole.