When a dozen or so rootsy discs with unfamiliar names on the front surface each month, you end up looking for elements that separate one from the rest of the pack. On Eric Athey’s Open House, those things are melody, crunch, and brains, plus vocals with the right amount of spit and unpolish — a pretty persuasive four-pack. The involvement of two members of the Boquist family (drummer Mark and ex-Son Volter Dave), the Baldwin Brothers of the alt-country set, doesn’t hurt either.
Open House announces its arrival with a pair of old-fashioned, crackling-good roots rockers in “Matter Of Time” and “You’ll Be Back Around”. Athey then spends a good deal of the rest of the album showing he can hush things down effectively, and in those quieter settings, the echoes of predecessors become more apparent.
“Did I Break Your Heart Tonight” is similar to Whiskeytown’s “Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight” in both title and musical tack, while “It’s My Life” could be prime Peter Case. “An Imitation” sounds halfway between Phil Lee and Steve Forbert, and contains one of the album’s smartest couplets: “But I’ve played the part for all this time ’til I became the role/Now I swear this act has blocked the sun from shining on my soul.”