Burning Days

Here, the Texas-based Sons of Fathers prove that the spirited alt-country sound of their debut album was no fluke. David Beck and Paul Cauthen display a deeper grasp of their songwriting and vocal abilities in these tracks, produced with rootsy, nuanced flair by Lloyd Maines (Wilco, Dixie Chicks). The result combines the maverick country intelligence of Gram Parsons with the galloping vitality of The Avett Brothers, with a uniquely poetic lyrical approach. There’s a rough-and-tumble feel to many of the duo's tracks, heard in the punchy guitars and angular groove of “Feel the Fall” and the spacy, almost psychedelic vibe of “O.G.C.T.A.W.” Beck and Cauthen place tightly matched harmonies over simmering twang-rock on the title number, then cut loose with a barnstorming train beat on “Root & Vine” before cooling out with the sweetly acoustic strains of “Selfish Mind.” From the rousing opener (“Hurt Someone”) to the reassuring closer (“The Mansion”), Sons of Fathers grapple with emotional highs and lows with a jaunty attitude that’s hard to resist. Slide guitarist Regan Schmidt adds emphatic punctuations to this consistently strong release.