The Parson Red Heads – Yearling (Second Motion/Parson Farm)

Originally released in 2011 on Arena Rock, Yearling, the third album from Portland’s Parson Red Heads, gets a new life from Second Motion after being lost in the shuffle of new releases the first time ‘round. The record definitely deserves it. The quartet’s harmony-rich country/folk rock hardly breaks any new ground in the style – echoes of the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Poco resound everywhere. But the group does this countrypolitan two-step just as well as any other likeminded outfit you’d care to name, by simple virtue of writing good songs and performing them like it means it. Guitarists Evan Way and Sam Fowles pen catchy, pretty tunes and layer their acoustic and electric guitars over them with pristine taste, and the way their voices intermingle with that of drummer Brette Marie Way often achieves pure, unvarnished beauty. Put more simply, tracks like “Time Is Running Out,” “Hazy Dream,” “Peace in the Valley” (from the Murmurations EP, helpfully appended to this edition), “Happy We Agree” and “Burning Up the Sky” are just plain irresistible. This Yearling will have legs for decades.

http://www.theparsonredheads.com
http://www.secondmotionrecords.com