Sleepy, weepy, cowpunk from the Austin duo of Rich Russell and Landry McMeans, whose lap steel and dobro drags these alt.country twisted tales through the barren Texas desert with a faint Neil Young aroma wafting through the sagebrush and mixing with Chicago cultists, Souled American. ?Steel? sashays across the horizon, leaving a dusty aftertaste of Jonathan Richman?s attempts at going country in our ears (cf. ?Jonathan Goes Country?). McMeans takes center stage on ?The Moon and The Sun,? and her vocals leave a sweet, honeysuckle variety to Russell?s good ol? boy, downhome grooves. Russell?s echoed lap steep and dobro add a haunting, full-moon quality to the track that contrasts nicely with our heroine?s litling voice.

The duo end on a high note with the spooky, ?Oyster,? with McMeans? faraway vocals riding the dusty prairie winds across your mind on a magic carpet ride buttressed by her lap steel and dobro. This is the perfect soundtrack for hunkering down in a sleeping bag under the stars somewhere out in the wild expanses of America?s vast hinterlands, counting shooting stars and cowering from coyotes howling in the night. 8/10 -- Jeff Penczak (7 August, 2006)