Somewhere in Time

It’s easy for a band to break new creative ground with its own songs—it’s harder to do when playing an album’s worth of cover tunes. Indeed, the Texas roots-rockers manage to pay an admirable musical tribute to the songs of Idaho cult favorite Pinto Bennett and his Famous Motel Cowboys, while infusing them with fresh touches of Texas twang and Western swing. Willy Braun’s vocals resemble a smokier Toby Keith, and are especially evocative on the fiddle-laced Bakersfield shuffle of “I Hold the Bottle, You Hold the Wheel” and the dramatic “Pure Quill.” Pinto Bennett himself joins in on “Thelma,” backed only by an acoustic guitar.