First thing you notice about this record is that 23-year-old Louisiana native Max Rollo, who is Saltgrass, is a confirmed Uncle Tupelo worshipper. These 11 originals are infused with the sort of rustic weariness that characterized Tupelo’s sound. Which is to say this isn’t the most original album in the world.
Second thing you notice: Who cares? Rollo has made a promising record, one that more often than not offsets its familiar trappings with fine songs and sincere singing and playing. The themes are the usual: small-town restlessness, being on the road, love gone good and bad, and so on. Amid those standard settings, Rollo manages to capture odd but universal moments. In “Favorite Song”, within earshot of his favorite watering hole’s jukebox — talk about cliched turf! — Rollo observes matter-of-factly, “I don’t care if I see your face again…but I still like our favorite song.” Meantime, “Radio Inside” captures perfectly the sheer simple joy of driving down the road, arm hung out the window, radio blaring.
Granted, Rollo has some growing to do as a songwriter. Sometimes matters get a bit too familiar. The lyrics of “Dust-Tarnished Town” sound like Southern-fried Springsteen, for example. And he comes off as awfully humorless: For all the joy of the aforementioned “Radio Inside”, for instance, Rollo sings the song as if it’s a dirge.