Jay Road is at once a solo artist and a band. The songs are all written and sung by Ty Whisenhunt (who also plays acoustic guitar), and he is the only person listed giving thanks in the album liner. All the tracks feature a pretty decent band, though, including renowned guitar wizard Dave Beegle of the Fourth Estate at lead guitar and Hammond, Christian Teele on drums, and Michael Olson on bass.
The music is perhaps the best part of this album. It's not that the lyrics are bad, dull, or uninteresting in any way. There's just little that stands out about them. They fit pretty neatly into the love-lost pattern of the folk-rock song, and the cover of the Hal Ketchum hit "Past the Point of Rescue" does nothing to change that impression. "Do You Think It Will Hurt?" is an example of the sort of lyrics we have here:
I think I'll shoot the stars out with a watergun
Or fall in love, whichever comes first
But maybe someday I'll be the lucky one
Well now I've heard it all
Always knew time was such a funny thing
There's the neat image of the stars and the watergun, but then it settles into a lament on lost love, as most of the tracks do.
There are brighter spots. "Faces Without Names" stretches out to suit its chorus of "Lazy day...". "Your Other Reason" has an extended outro which is simply wonderful. The closing track, "Bonnie Kate" has a wonderful Celtic lilt to it. Somehow, though, the album ends up just falling short. It's good, but not good enough to become a classic.
3 tocks
