Emerson Drive completes new disc

Countrified

With Richard Marx having ceded his chair to Nashville producers (including Alabama bassist Teddy Gentry), Canadian sextet Emerson Drive's third release turns to sounds that are indeed more "countrified." There's more fiddle, banjo and tight multipart harmonies, even as the string-lined ballads and electric pop-rockers retain the band's core crossover appeal. The album's opening riff will remind many of The Go-Go's "Head Over Heels." The songs, from a ...

What If?

"What If?" by Emerson Drive is breezy and glossy pop-country, if you like that sort of thing. This second album (like its debut) was produced by Richard Marx who - and you can almost see this one coming - is a breezy and glossy pop singer/songwriter/producer. The result of this pairing is akin to a fluffier sounding Lonestar - assuming, of course, anything even gets any fluffier than that ever-so-feathery Lonestar. But whether these songs were composed-by-committee - it took nearly a full baseball ...

Emerson Drive

Emerson Drive follows in the footsteps of Highway 101 and Sawyer Brown, bands named after streets - in this case, the Emerson Trail from that hotbed of country and western music Western Alberta. Unfortunately, the nomenclature is the only thing E.D. has in common with those two talented bands. The guys have an undeniably pleasant way of harmonizing, some naive enthusiasm for themselves ("Ours is the Mt. Everest of work ethics" bassist Jeff Loberg avers, even though these guys can't be bothered to ...