My prediction is that, above all else, two specific things about this debut will make the most immediate impact on listeners. First, with trips to North Virginia, New England, Las Vegas, Abilene, Corinth, Tennessee, and Carolina, Presenting The Great Unknowns puts on more miles than a record of truck driving songs. (Just a theory, but all this highway talk could be related to the fact that songwriter and vocalist Becky Warren lives in Statesboro, Georgia, while the other three band members are in Boston.)
Second, the music that fuels these road trips frequently sounds like the work of an extraordinarily good tribute band, Sweet Old Gravel Road: The Lucinda Williams Experience. This strong similarity is most striking on “Forever”, all weathered vocals, accordion, and damaged hearts; its opening line, “Since you’ve been gone, my heart is a fist,” even sounds like it could have two-stepped off Williams’ self-titled record.
Despite this second quirk — or, more likely, because of it — I can’t stop playing this disc. Warren’s songwriting is evocative and richly detailed throughout (“You can’t make it in this town without leather for bones and a conscience of stone” is one rather Townes-ian example), and guitarist Michael Powell’s experience in the power-pop band Invisible Downtown seems to have brought an exceptional crispness and hookiness to the Great Unknown’s rootsy rock.
Thus, I walk around singing the “When I Was Your Girl” chorus from the fine song of the same name, earning strange looks from my wife and proving that the album has made a home in my head, and quite possibly in my heart.