Goose Creek Symphony
's frontman
Charles Gearhart
continues his admirable imitation of
the Band
's warm
country-rock
on their second album,
Words of Earnest
. The opening track,
"Gearhart and God,"
finds the singer good-naturedly pleading with the man upstairs for help writing a song, promising to split the royalties 50/50. The whole album is full of slightly tongue-in-cheek stories about fishin' holes and the good life livin' in the country, each warmly backed by
Fred Wise
's loose fiddle or the occasional
Dixieland
/Salvation Army brass band. Similar to a lot of
the Grateful Dead
's more countrified stuff, these down-home rockers make for great summertime porch music. ~ Zac Johnson