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 The five-man band from Athens, Georgia, started in 1995. Three years of hard playing and hard living (and maybe even a little hard drinking) have culminated in the band's debut record, Why Do Lonely Men & Women Want to Break Each Other's Hearts?
Good question. The title not only evokes the grand philosophical wonderings of some of country's great songwriters,
The Star Room Boysı sound is rooted in the tried and true rules of country music arrangement- not out of any revivalist notions, but out of genuine devotion and good sense. The time the Boys have spent with their Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Ernest Tubb, Songwriter/front man Dave Marr puts it this way: "Country music lets you write about anything- any truth you think you know." Marr nails those truths with his vivid, pared-down lyrics, and he delivers them with a voice that cries and smokes. The band - Bob Fernandez on drums, Philip McArdle on guitar, John McMahon on bass, and Johnny Neff on pedal steel - second the motion with damn good music. Marr says, "We want to make country music that's fun to play and, hopefully, fun to listen to." Amen to that and more- fun to dance to, drink to, break up to, and make up to. |
it captures the way The Star Room Boys can cut to the heart of a matter: from the pathos-filled ballads to the bar anthems, the albumıs songs and sound are streamlined-sparse, but deceptively simple. There's humor, thereıs heat, and thereıs bitterness. Lonely Men & Women is diverse and subtle, complex and confident, the way youıd expect a record three years in the making to be.
