"Take the old, make it new" Zoe Muth sings in "Whatever's Left".  She takes her own advice by drawing upon classic country to realize her own musical visions, aided by the nuanced playing of her backup combo.  Muth' aching twang brings Emmylou Harris and Iris Dement to mind, with a bit of Lucinda Willliams earthy pathos as well.  She adept at dashing off vivid character sketches with a Western ambiance, gravitating towards the rougher side of the tracks for her scenery.   "New Mexico",  Let's Just Be Friends For Tonight" and the title number transform their hard luck stories into laments of beautiful sadness.  The honky-tonk ballad "If I Can't Trust You With A Quarter (How Can I Trust You With My Heart?)" tempers the downbeat mood with some sly wit.   Muth picks up the pace with the brass-accented good spirits of "I've Been Gone" and the nonchalant compassion of "Come Inside".   Billy Joe Huel's trumpet, Ethan Lawton's mandolin and Dave Harmonson's pedal steel add tasty embellishments that recall both 60's countrypolitan sounds and 90's alt-country. --All Music Guide - April 28, 2011The ten tracks on Zoe Muth's sophomore outing, Starlight Hotel, aren't what most listeners would expect to hear from a woman living in a small Seattle neighborhood - the city that countless grunge and rock bands before her also called home. In other words, the Pacific Northwest isn't exactly country music territory.Which is why Muth's latest songs are all the more impressive. Her musical aesthetic draws heavily from the traditional country sound of the South, and she pulls it off rather effortlessly, as though she grew up singing in clubs all over Kentucky. She displays a wide range of songwriting capability, offering a healthy dose of both up-tempo toe-tappers ("I've Been Gone," "Come Inside") and quiet ballads ("Before the Night Is Gone," "New Mexico") whose lyrics revolve around themes of embracing life, with or without that working class man by her side.Whether she's accompanied by a full band or an acoustic guitar, Muth's voice remains the focus of each song. It resonates brilliantly throughout the album, striking a timbre somewhere between Loretta Lynn and Jenny Lewis. Muth is quickly building a solid niche that bridges yesterday's and today's female alt-country visionaries while maintaining a style that is undoubtedly her own. (Signature Sounds Recordings) --Performer Magazine - April 30, 2011April 22, 2011 Zoe Muth and The Lost High Rollers - Starlight Hotel wpid-zoe_muth_and_the_lost_high_rollers_2011_starlight_hotel-450x403 The cover of the record tells the story of Starlight Hotel: a quilted bed, a woman still fully clothed and smoking a cigarette, an empty bottle of wine on the bedside table, a pair of cowboy boots. A shirtless Luchadore sits stiffly next to her. His mask is still on and a suitcase rests close by his side. Whatever they have done-and we know what they have done-they are no longer touching, and they sit in that bed like strangers. An intimate encounter with no intimacy. Another night spent in the dim light of the Starlight Hotel sign, trying to forget. The Starlight Hotel sits on the corner of old Ballard Avenue and NW Vernon Place, a stalwart of "old Ballard" before the condos and sushi joints moved in. It's a roach motel that has kept its curtains tightly drawn for most of my 30 years, with a door I've never seen opened. The Starlight Hotel has stood unchanged by time, a seedy mystery on a familiar strip. It's a building whose presence conjures vivid stories of its inhabitants just by existing -- people down on their luck in life and in love, chasing dreams, but settling for well whiskey and one-night stands. That the Starlight Hotel has survived, decade after decade, as Ballard has changed seems to scream: "You might look different, but you're still making the same old mistakes." Starlight Hotel, the album, is the much anticipated second release from Ballard's own Zoe Muth and The Lost High Rollers. Zoe and her band, like the album's namesake, are also "old Ballard," specializing in classic country songs and eschewing the polished Americana pop so prevalent now on Ballard Avenue. Starlight Hotel is made up of songs that sound just as at home today as they would have 30 years ago and just as at home as they will 30 years from now, because there has always been and there will always be an appreciative audience for songs about good women who fall for bad men, anthems for good people with bad jobs and tales about just eking by in life with good songs, bad choices and the comfort we find in both. Zoe Muth writes some of the very best of these songs. If you told me Starlight Hotel was a "Best Of" CD, filled with one great song after the next and nothing to fast-forward through, I'd believe you if not for the common thread that connects all 10 songs: a road-weariness from working and loving too hard. The album begins with boisterous mariachi horns before easing into songs that ache with the wail of Country Dave Harmonson's pedal steel, sad knowing songs chock-full of lines so devastatingly clever and truths so simple it feels as if they must have been sung by Loretta or Emmylou decades ago. Plain-spoken but poetic, listening to Zoe is like sitting on a bar stool next to a friend, sharing stories of hardships of the heart and the daily grind with a wink and a sigh. When she sings on "Harvest Moon Blues,""I've never had a job worth keepingNo I never had a dime to spareYou know that old trouble's been creeping up on my back stairI always feel lonelyEven in the best of company"  Who among us can't relate? And who among us doesn't wonder: how is it possible that Willie or Waylan hadn't already written that line? Starlight Hotel is a country album, and it is a great one. Country Dave Harmonson's pedal steel work is some of the most personality-filled playing you'll ever hear-it sobs and sneers and winks-and Ethan Lawton's mandolin picking is both the delicate flourish and unrelenting workhorse of the album. With vocals that are sweet but smoky, backed by one of the best bands in Seattle, and with songs that could be mistaken for classics, if these Ballard ballads don't make an impact on Music Row, then something's seriously amiss in Nashville. No matter if Nashville notices, though, because like its namesake, Starlight Hotel will stand the test of time. Because no matter how much things change, we'll still be making the same mistakes and songs will still be the best salve. --Sound On Sound April, 2011Awards season was even more depressing than usual for anyone who loves smart, honest country music. Taylor Swift's banal adolescent ramblings, one-hook wonders Lady Ante-bellum's constant droning, all of Miranda Lambert's wicked sass kicked out of her on that sappy song about the house .... So imagine what a relief it is to hear real poetry, ingenious wit and pedal steel perfection on Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers' second album. A Seattle kid who somehow remembers everything Nashville's forgotten, songwriter Muth sings in a slightly flat purr that works equally well on evocatively elusive country rock lyrics ("I've Been Gone," "Before the Night Is Gone"), socially engaged folk ballads ("Tired Worker's Song") and "If I Can't Trust You With a Quarter," the greatest and funniest anthem ever written (with Anna Brown) for a honky-tonk angel with superior musical tastes. The High Rollers are as tight and innovative a country band as you could ever want to hear; they bring the traditional without ever sounding stale. In a genre that's declared authentic and fresh dirty words, Muth and the boys make those lost values ring.Bob Strauss, Daily News --LA Daily News - May 1, 2011Zoe Muth's singing voice is a lot like Emmylou Harris' vocals. She's similar to Harris in a few other ways, as well. For one, she sounds prematurely old, just as Harris did when she first started. Secondly, she loves traditional country music with a passion. Along with her Lost High Rollers, Muth has gifted the world with a collection of music that is straight, no chaser.This album opens with I've Been Gone, which rings out with a boisterous brass horn section, not unlike Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. Another clear highlight is the honky-tonk lament If I Can't Trust You With A Quarter (How Can I Trust You With My Heart?). The girl in this song thinks she's found a winner, until she finds out he's never heard John Prine. Any man that doesn't appreciate Prine, simply cannot be Mr. Right. The track is beautiful, traditional country, with plenty of steel guitar on it.Muth also knows her way around quieter material, which exemplified by the hushed, acoustic traveling music of Harvest Moon Blues. Just when you start to believe that they just don't make 'em the way they used to, Zoe Muth And Lost High Rollers comes along to restore your faith. --Country Standard Time April 10, 2011