It’s a little curious to come across an album with 11 musician credits that still sounds like a Texas singer-songwriter record, with traces of and nods to Guy Clark (“Hallowed Ground”), Townes Van Zandt (“Adios Colorado” and “Between The Moon And Memphis”), Terry Allen (“No One Speaks English”), and adopted Texan Ray Wylie Hubbard (“Our Lady Of Sangria”). However, a little digging reveals that the Johnsons are chiefly Matt Smith and Chris Ong, a Central Carolina pair who share songwriting credits, lead vocal honors and guitar duties. Smith also plays mandolin and harmonica, while Ong contributes some understated piano work, and they call on their friends to sit in on banjo, pedal steel, and lap steel — all of it used for natural seasoning, not credibility.
There’s also a visit to the North Texas town of Toronto (way north), as the whine-and-harmonica openings of “Someday (I’m Gonna Come Back Down)” and “Martyr’s Tune” sound like they were harvested from an early Neil Young album. And the comparatively rollicking “Lorraine Street” is probably the one song that would feel at home on the Johnsons’ more straightforward roots-rocking debut, Lazybones.
Odessa is a long way from Winston-Salem on the map, but this impressive sophomore effort suggests Smith and Ong have driven through West Texas once or twice, most likely with well-worn cassettes of Flyin’ Shoes, Old No. 1 and After The Gold Rush trading time in the deck.