This edition of Paslay’s first collections includes all five cuts from his The Work Tapes release – hence it’s a healthy look at his style and songwriting. What’s at work here? Well, a love of country music for sure but I suggest just as importantly the wish to paint pictures of human situations we might all find ourselves in. If not already broken by events, that is. Producer is Marshall Altman.

Keep On Fallin’ rides in on guitar string harmonics, reverbed skywards and an insistent acoustic rhythm, soon firmed up by the bass, drums and keys, with a snakey slide guitar slithering about. The vocal is a tad sandpapered, richly sustained over the tremelo’d electric guitar. A fine starter.

A banjo tumble brings in Friday Night, already a popular stage number I understand. It does sound like Friday Night! The tempo is choppy, jumpin’ and the vocal almost conspiratorial. The chorus is airy and infectious…best surrender early. Made to be played live, for certain. The key is highish but Paslay sounds comfortable enough.

Less Than Whole sounds more sinister but just as purposeful. Vocally, this holds back to let the picture be painted. The lyric centres on forgiveness and makes its point with grace and no histrionics. Somehow his pacing reminds this listener of John Prine or even Gene Clark. The build of the song is well handled, staying this side of tuneful.

Country Side Of Heaven is a corny title but the number is delivered in a lightish mode evoking those wide open spaces. You just want to sway along. Almost a Little Big Town vibe at work. Never Really Wanted uses a sly, pushy beat to sing a tune of love/lust. This is like early Keith Urban and that’s a compliment ! His voice can handle the semi-spoken as well as the full-blooded and these gears are useful. The guitar break is crisp and sounds fine. A superior song. Here Comes Love is a banjo-based fish-fry singalong, probably another setlist favourite if not quite my thang.

Like A Song is altogether rockier and grittier, set to a guitar gallop with some ear-catching tones in the mix amidst the slashing chords. A suspended pre-chorus adds clean dynamics. Good With Wine is a subtle and steady composition, maybe the best here as he sounds like no-one else. Would have made a terrific duet with a female artist, I venture. She Don’t Love You is the kind of song you could mis-read. Where do his feelings lie? What really happened ? One I want to discuss with Eric when I get the chance. The arrangement is suitably sombre.

Song About A Girl starts playfully. The backdrop is all stop-start, the vocal beautifully low to start with then settles into a catchy groove. Repeat plays likely here at HQ. Then we get Deep As It Is Wide which takes a soft fairytale intro for a reflective tune, free of push and kept misty on the instrumentation. Something filmic at work here..

On to the second disc in the set. Less Than Whole in a different acoustic setting, Amarillo Rain semi-narrated and some harmony singing on a sweet lament, Back Home To You which is more emphatic in pacing and using neat tremelo’d electric with the song sounding oddly familiar for some reason. Then Come Back To This Town thrashed out like a Johnny Cash classic and falsetto voice so I can’t sing along and finally Let Go a nice rippling song-poem that cries out for electric piano.

If your tastes ride close to Tom Petty, Dwight Yoakam, Montgomery Gentry and the like this is a record you should get to hear. It mixes punch and tenderness to good effect.

Pete Sargeant