Star Room Boys, The - Why Do Lonely Men and Women Want to Break Each Other's Hearts? Star Room Boys, The

Why Do Lonely Men and Women Want to Break Each Other’s Hearts? is a raw, echoing document of days spent struggling through love and nights spent drifting through bars, an essential record from the nascent Americana movement of the 90s and a beloved classic of Athens music. Before they entered the studio in the summer of 1998 for this debut, the Star Room Boys had spent four years solidifying their lineup and honing their sound to a leaner, more timeless country edge, dodging the slavish throwback and the punkish tendencies that characterized much of the alt-country of the day and driving their music further down the road paved by their treasured Merle Haggard. Recorded live to two-inch tape and bathed in plate reverb, the album captures the band’s sound at its early peak in support of singer and songwriter Dave Marr’s bruised and resigned love songs. They may have gotten more polished in their few remaining years, but the Star Room Boys were never more aligned in their mission, more audibly in love with the small-hours soul side of country music, than they were here.