Canaries

Top Ten Album of 2009 - Wayne Bledsoe, Knoxville News Sentinel Top Ten Local Release of 2009 - Steve Wildsmith, Maryville Daily Times 'It's disarming, beguiling, sometimes hypnotic....' -Jack Neely, Metropulse 'I have no idea what to call the Lonetones. They're acoustic musicians who don't always play acoustic. They're folk musicians with a love of modern psychedelia. Whatever they are, they're great. 'Canaries,' the group's third album, stretches the Lonetones' borders a little more. Married couple Steph Gunnoe and Sean McCullough anchor the group with their consistently fine songs and vocals. Stand-out numbers include Gunnoe's beautiful and delicate 'Gone Again' and McCullough's 'Blue Vinyl' - a song that is so lyrically minimalist that it has no right to be so lovable. Bassist Maria Williams, drummer Steve Corrigan and accordionist/pianist Lissa McLeod help flesh good songs out into something purely beautiful.' -Wayne Bledsoe, Knoxville News Sentinel ''I think there's something really pleasing about dissonance,' Gunnoe told The Daily Times this week. 'I think we're really melodically driven musicians, but it's so pleasing to somehow wed something really melodic with a more complex dissonance or background....' That dissonance may seem out-of-place on an initial listen to 'Canaries,' but repeated plays find McCollough and Gunnoe at a creative peak. The sound effects are understated -- sly and soft, contributing to a song's mood or melody in almost indefinable ways. The layers are arranged in gorgeous stacks, like the shimmering icing of a wedding cake -- intricate, detailed and personable. Gunnoe's girlish voice is another instrument in the mix, and as it swirls and bobs on a sea of lush instrumentation, there's a dreamlike quality to 'Canaries' that's fascinating and endearing.' -Steve Wildsmith, Maryville Daily Times ''Sean and I are always taking issue with people putting Appalachian music in a box. We want it to be something that's living and breathing,' said Gunnoe' -from quot;New Appalachia: The Lonetones - Band looks to bring mountain music into the modern day,quot; Wayne Bledsoe, Knoxville News Sentinel ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• I've starred in a million dreams Oscar winning only made me mean How it hurts to be eclipsed We're all stars in our apocalypse. (from quot;Trickle Downquot;) To some, the Lonetones new album, Canaries, has the feel of a soundtrack. Perhaps it's the lush musical production with layers of contrasting colors. Or maybe it's the lyrical themes - songs for a quot;new Appalachia.quot; It's not a soundtrack (at least not yet), but if it were, perhaps it would be best described as a soundtrack for life in modern Appalachia - an ode to a post-Oh-Brother-Where-Art-Thou era. The album, and the band's music in general, speaks to the conflicted nature of a region steeped in tradition while blighted by Walmarts and stripmines. It speaks to generational conflicts and the inner struggles of those whose hearts and souls are tied to the mountains but also want to be set free. But the album is not simply a lament. Rather, it is a hope that the old and the new can work together as symbiotic partners. In the song quot;West Virginia Soundtrackquot; Gunnoe offers her assistance in this task: quot;I'll be your midwife dark and alone, I'll help you bear what's never been born.quot; And in quot;Here In The South,quot; she promises to this end that quot;here in the south, ain't gonna shut my mouth.quot; The production of the album also reflect