Distance Between
With a name like the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, you might expect this San Diego quartet to play amphetamine-fueled, Sun Records-style rockabilly music. In fact, the group's2001 debutowed more toWaylon Jenningsthan the Man in Black (though Cash did give his blessing for the band to appropriate his name). This time around, the Bastards' sound has even less to do with their legendary namesake.Distance Betweenhas a few countryish numbers ("Marfa Lights," a cover ofLefty Frizzell's "Long Black Veil"), but the overall sound is much less twangy and the apparent inspiration is the roots-rock ofBruce SpringsteenandSteve Earle. Singer-writer Mark Stuart often sounds like a slightly countrified version of the former, particularly on "Monte Carlo," an ode to his 1970 muscle car, and "Burn Down," a melancholy rocker about trying to leave the past behind. "Distance Between" and "Wind It Up" recall Earle in hisCopperhead Roadperiod. And that's just the problem: Stuart's influences are just a little too obvious, and the result is thatDistance Betweenhas a been-there, done-that feel to it.--David Hill