DOGWOOD TALES - Every Star in Rockingham County DOGWOOD TALES

Though heavy and personal in its lyrical content, the album was born out of a spirit of naivety and experimentation that breathes lightness and excitement into the music. Pedal steel chords and delicate harmonization between Ryan and Grim — who’ve at this point been singing together half their lives — accompany jamming power pop drum lines by Golibart, tasteful guitar licks, and wistful video game soundbites. Whether it’s song titles like “Princess Peach” and the football games and Coca-Colas of “McMemories” Dogwood Tales speaks in a vocabulary previously unexplored in earlier works, unafraid of showing as much reverence for iconic fast food and video game characters as they do their grandmothers and local basketball legends. Or the achingly specific lyrics in “Angel Dreams”, “We drove to Southern Kitchen, you wouldn’t even play my favorite song. You cried in your fried chicken, the waitress thought I said something wrong,” it’s easy to feel like you’re sitting on a couch in the band’s attic; sharing stories, ambient Gamecube on in the background. The humming electric guitars over beds of pedal steel and earnest lyricism find ESiRC in dialogue with indie rock’s current Lo-Fi country romanticism, lyrically pays homage to revered American songwriters in the footsteps of Townes Van Zandt, but ultimately takes listeners on a ride through uncharted territory. It’s a ride through Rockingham County, through the moody valley, the tight bond of four friends coming of age in a rural Virginia town, and a digital age where loneliness is far too prevalent. Thankfully, we’ve got the stars to keep us company.