Midnight & Dawn

Deer Creek Boys

2017 - Mountain Fever Records.  The one thing that I dislike about today’s music industry is the fact that entertainers record album after album within a short period of time.  Back in the day, entertainers took their time to create a well meaningful album filled with cleverly-written songs.  Not to say that this album is not that, I just feel that if the Deer Creek Boys spent more time creating rather than recording, they could conceive an album of breath taking music.  Again, this group includes four covers out of the twelve songs included on this album.  These covers include Vince Gill’s 1991 hit “I Quit,” Benny Goodman’s 1941 hit song “Airmail Special,” and “Backwater” which was originally recorded by the Meat Puppets in 1993.  They also include a traditional song called “Been All Around This World,” which was originally arranged by Jerry Garcia of the group Grateful Dead in 2004. Jason and Justin, two of the band members, are developing into some serious songwriters and I wonder why this album does not consist more of their music?  The two brothers included five songs that they co-wrote or wrote.  The album opens and closes with two of their songs in “Highwire” and “Paralyzed.”  Other songs that they wrote comprise of “Love’s Raining Down” and “Looks Like Love.”  However, it is their two songs “The Cowboy” and “The Real World” that stand out the most.  “The Real World” is a wonderful ditty that speaks about how things could be if the real world did not get in the way.  Where as “The Cowboy” is a moody song about living with a cowboy.  Both of these songs will end up on our list of Top Songs of 2017 and earn a nomination each for the Spirit Award’s Song of The Year Award.  If I were the producer of this band I would forbid them from entering into a recording studio, until they had a complete list of self-penned songs.  I strongly believe that if they were to create such an album, that it would launch this group into vast acceptance and popularity amongst the Bluegrass genre.  Please, no more covers! $$$ - $$$$

(This review was printed in the November / December 2017 issue of Strictly Country Magazine.)

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