Sunshine
Tom and Ian Spanic, a father-son duo whose rich harmonic blend is as sweet as the Everly Brothers crying in the rain, could pull off a roots-rocking tune here such as "Honey" or "I Hear You Talking" without even breaking a sweat. And they've certainly mastered the fine art of coaxing the twang out of an unsuspecting Strat. But Sunshine also finds the family stretching out beyond the roots-rock border. Take the title cut, a hazy psychadelic rocker that almost comes off as a sequel to the Beatles "Rain," complete with convincingly Ringo-esque drum fills and a backward guitar solo. "Secret" takes that psychadelic flashback in an even trippier direction, adding Tex-Mex organ, vocals that feel like they come with a lava lamp, and a solo suggesting what Roger McGuinn might've played if he'd recorded this one on the morning after "Eight Miles High." On "Didn't Love You Anyway" they rock like a '60s garage band covering Larry Williams, with a solo as trashy as anything this side of those earliest Kinks hits. Then there's the Beatlesque ache of "When The Night Has Come," fueled by the strum of acoustic guitars. Wherever these guys take the sound, though, in the end, it still sounds like a Spanic Boys record, each track boasting some truly heroic guitar work, from the stately southern rock-meets-Memphis-soul vibe of "What Will You Do?" to the headier psychadelic trip they take on "Secret" and the title cut. --No Depression Magazine - Ed MasleyMilwaukee father-and-son guitarslingers Ian and Tom Spanic, who ve performed together now for 20 years, always bring a sense of cross-generational joy to their too-rare releases. Where past discs often sounded like Buddy Holly-era roots-rock, here, the Spanics snap off Fender lines that owe equally to The Beatles  Revolver and Buck Owens  The Carnegie Hall Concert, coming off like some lost  60s garage band with the chops to match its enthusiasm. --USA Today - Brian MansfieldCelebrating their 20th anniversary as a band, the Spanic Boys have brought forth album number eight, now on their own label. The father-son Spanics - Tom and Ian, respectively - tasted some pre-Americana era glory in the early '90s, and their dual-Stratocaster sound is as sparkling as ever, with the dozen originals running the gamut from the sassy Freddy-King-meets-Buck-Owens "Honey" to the Revolver-era psychadelia of the title track. They can also pen a hopping genre workout like "Bigger Fool Than Me" without it having a whiff of museum air to it. Throughout the entire set, Ian and Tom's voices interlock with the same precision and sympathetic timbres as numerous singing brother duos from the last half century. Spanic Boys are not only Milwaukee's finest; they're also one of the most honestly rocking bands in the land. --Harp Magazine - David Greenberger