The Amity Front
Highway Bound
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This exceedingly eclectic group has a wide and varied sound that is communicated in a true and honest manner. Part of that may be because two members of the group write all the songs; Erik Alan wrote all but two of the songs, and those two, "The Hymn" and "The Beat (nik)" were written by Levin Schwartz. Perhaps because the songs come from within the band or possibly for some reason like they are very good musicians, the seemingly disparate styles seem to seamlessly flow together. They are rooted in the blues, but certainly not limited by the form. They stretch their music in some very interesting directions. The disc opens with a weeper in the country tradition that is played by a roots amalgamation, and then flows through some semi-bluegrass sounding instrumentation, onto some deeper bluegrass sounds, to a drunken sounding spoken hippie lament, to some Tom Waitsish sounding jazzy rhythm, and so forth you get the idea of what is happening here. It all holds together and flows with a natural motion. There is
nothing new and groundbreaking here, there are some very good and well thought out musical breaks that are never overdone, but always seem to just about right. The lead guitar work of Levin Schwartz isn't breaking new ground but is tastefully fluent, and Erik Alan's voice has a mournful distinctive rasp that adds an additional layer to the songs. This group has an interesting future and some real potential to break out of its Amherst, Massachusetts's area stomping ground.