(Alternative Folk, Indie-Folk, Folk-Rock, Modern Folk) [WEB] The Lonetones - Canaries - 2009, FLAC (tracks), lossless

The Lonetones
BIOGRAPHY
The Lonetones are an acclaimed East Tennessee band that recently marked a decade of playing together with the release of their fourth album, Modern Victims. Following up on their 2009 work, Canaries, The Lonetones continue to sift through musical influences in service of each song. Their signature melotdic Appalachian string-pop sond is certainly represented, but they have also unleashed their inner indie on this disc, incorporating electric guitar, horns and cello.
Driven by the songwriting of Steph Gunnoe and Sean McCollough, the band artfully fuses urban and rural themes and musical styles. The lyrics are fueled by a search for identity in the changing Appalachian landscape.
Sometimes you'll catch them playing banjo and mandolin. Other times, electric guitar and keyboards. They've been called modern folk, indie-folk, Americana, folk rock, folkadelic, "an Appalachian Belle and Sebastian"...
In their early years, they were often compared to revivalists such as Iris Dement or Gillian Welch & David Rawlings. But in more recent years, they have also drawn comparisons to rock bands such as Wilco & Belle and Sebastian. As they have grown as artists, their sound has become a unique mix of folk, rock, country and pop elements.
Wayne Bledsoe of the Knoxville News Sentinel says “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!”
Both the band’s lyrics and music speak to the conflicted nature of a region steeped in tradition while blighted by Walmarts and stripmines. They speak 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.
Bradley Hanson of Knoxville Voice writes that “their music rings from the mountains of Appalachia with a reverent, enduring and, at times, conflicted spirit. The band mates shoulder their geography with craft and care.”
At the center of the band are married couple Steph Gunnoe (acoustic & electric guitar, vocals) and Sean McCollough (banjo, mandolin, acoustic & electric guitar, keys, vocals). They are backed by the strong rhythm section of Maria Williams (upright & acoustic bass, vocals) and Steve Corrigan (drums and glockenspiel). Recently they have added Cecilia Blair Miller on cello.
They have opened for Sam Bush, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Amazing Rhythm Aces, among others, and have played at Bristol Rhythm and Roots, the WDVX Camperfest, The Atlantis Music Conference, Americana Crossroads Live, The Bijou Theatre in Knoxville and the famous Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville.
They have had songs appear on several compilation CDs including, most recently, a CD called Still Moving Mountains that includes notable acts such as Kathy Mattea, Blue Highway, Del McCoury, and Everett Lilly.
They have had albums appear on several top-10 lists. Their most recent album, Canaries, appeared on several in 2009 including Wayne Bledsoe's ofThe Knoxville News Sentinel and DJ boBee Sweet's at KDHX in St. Louis MO. 

Their most recent material adds a strong indie-rock influence to their already unique sound with the addition of electric guitar and keyboards. And although their sound has changed over the years, they can still pull out some foot-stompin old-time music while also pushing the boundaries of what it means to play “mountain” music in this modern age. "The Lonetones have perfected modern Appalachian music" (Alec Cunningham, Blank Magazine)
"Here I was, a local music writer and I had never heard The Lonetones live. What an idiot. I’ll know better next time, as my mouth dropped a mere 45 seconds in. I stopped what I was doing to soak in what was one of the best sets of the weekend."

Call this the Lonetones' own "Tusk." Acoustic folkies led by singer-songwriters (and married couple) Sean McCullough and Steph Gunnoe show their eclectic and sometimes electric side. It's quixotic and enchanting throughout. - Wayne Bledsoe, Knoxville News
Album Notes:
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 “New Appalachia: The Lonetones - Band looks to bring mountain music into the modern day,” Wayne Bledsoe, Knoxville News Sentinel
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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 “Trickle Down”)
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 “new Appalachia.” 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 “West Virginia Soundtrack” Gunnoe offers her assistance in this task: “I’ll be your midwife dark and alone, I’ll help you bear what’s never been born.” And in “Here In The South,” she promises to this end that “here in the south, ain’t gonna shut my mouth.”
The production of the album also reflects the conflicted nature of modern Appalachia (and contemporary “Appalachian” music). The band still has the partial look of an old-time string band with acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin and upright bass. But even these instruments aren’t always played in a traditional manner and the addition of drums, accordion, keys and vibes takes the music in new directions.
In a recent Knoxville News Sentinel interview, Gunnoe stated that "people expect you to be an old-time band when you have these instruments. 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." To this end, on Canaries, they also mix together electronic and found sounds (dissonance at times) with acoustic instruments.
Steve Wildsmith of the Maryville Daily Times describes it this way: “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. “
But amidst all of that, Gunnoe’s voice remains at the center of the band’s sound – of the mountains, but not satisfied to be just that. Jack Neely of Metro Pulse says of her voice that “its overt innocence sometimes seems to conceal some deeper melancholy beneath the surface, a singing through trauma.”
Gunnoe and McCollough still work closely together with the band to create the unique arrangements that they have become known for, searching for just the right instruments to compliment each song. Maria Williams still provides a strong backbone with her upright bass and harmony singing. And Steve Corrigan on drums and Lissa McLeod on accordion and keys provide fresh voices to round out the lush sound of band.

Myspace: http://myspace.com/thelonetones