Why Do Lonely Men & Women Want to Break Each Other's Hearts?
Somewhere betweenDwight Yoakam's yearning twang andRichard Buckner's pained warble is Dave Marr's soulful and emotion-soaked moan and whine, used to great effect on this Athens, Georgia, quintet's sharp debut. The sound borrows heavily from the edgy and crisp Bakersfield style, with only the slightest hint of cool to soften the edges of Marr's sad shuffles and sadder ballads. With Philip McArdle's electric guitar and one-timeTwo Dollar PistolJohnny Neff's steel snapping back and forth behind him, Marr dissects the failed and failing relationship across 13 straight-shooting originals that are wise enough not to even try to answer the title's rhetorical question.--Marc Greilsamer