The raucous band's songs are surprisingly low-key. Even "Redneck Tailgate Dream," a chin-up challenge to the truck-driving teens who clog the streets of Lawrence on a Friday night, seems tentative. The best surprise is the emergence of Wayne Gottstine as a songwriter. "Promise Not to Tell," his tale of an abuse victim's revenge, positively stings. "Just Like a Gillian Welch Song" is a country-moan classic. But it's also one of the few songs on the album that doesn't come with a needs-to-be-fleshed-out asterisk. Many of these songs -- from Rundstrom's "C'mon Get Your Gun" to Gottstine's string band blues on "A Little More Cocaine" -- could be nicotine-stained bluegrass nirvana. But on this album, they seem way too gentle.
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