Palace And Stage

After mining the intersection of rock, alt-country, and campfire folk during 2007's First You Live, Dusty Rhodes and the River Band introduce a stronger jam band ethic with Palace and Stage. The River Band's sophomore effort is still grounded in the 1970s, with a mixture of swirling organs, cowbell, and Southern-styled guitars all evoking the decade. Yet the band's eager diversity -- the willingness to puddle-jump from genre to genre, connected only by a string of clear, simple choruses -- is more indebted to the jam movement of the '90s, which wields particular influence during the album's most energized tracks. As before, songwriting credits are shared among the entire lineup, and lead singer Dustin Apodaca often relinquishes the microphone to other members. All vocalists aren't created equal, however, and Apodaca is surprisingly upstaged by several of his more vocally competent bandmates. The breezy, soulful "Andy" (written and presumably sung by guitarist Kyle Divine, who colors his voice with a hint of vibrato) is performed with understated grace, a welcome change from the overzealous grit that Apodaca shoehorns into the previous three tunes. Meanwhile, violinist Andrea Babinski also helms a song to pleasant effect, and her voice turns "So Low" into a fun nugget of diverse, indie folk whimsy. Palace and Stage takes strength in such variety, and the album ultimately emerges as a fairly solid group effort -- greater than the sum of its parts, wide-ranging, and a nice follow-up to the band's debut. ~ Andrew Leahey