Dog Days (Roadrunner, 1995)

If you're a fan of traditional country (e. g. Ray Price) your first impulse is to toss this CD into the fireplace. Play it again: it slowly grows on you. Called roots rock, the music is typified by instrumentation, overwhelming lyrics and all of it LOUD. The singer is always a shade off key. A lot of it is toe tapping noise with no heart appeal, but good toe tapping. The lyrics tell a story, though it's sometimes hard to figure out just what. High points are two primarily acoustic numbers, "Mountain Girl" and "Epitaph," good lyrics and a dose of quiet in the wall of sound. "ZZQ" - about a defunct radio station - is another good one This album is a high point for roots rock and should establish Blue Mountain in the genre. But it's not country.