Bound Away

Album Review

Fronted by Washington Post contributor Eric Brace, Last Train Home — D.C.'s very own roots rock troupe — surfs a number of subgenres with ease on the highly likable Bound Away. Ten members strong, LTH ably brings forth charging rockers like "Marlene" — a tune Brace salvaged from his days in the Linemen — and pensive, seminal weepers like Bob Dylan's "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," but the group really hits its stride with original material. Be it the poignant "Hendersonville," a tune Brace reportedly wrote after visiting the gravesite of Johnny Cash and his spouse June Carter Cash, or the organ-laden charm of "Flipping Quarters," a pay-phone heartbreaker — these songs are deeply emotional and inventive with flourishes of trumpet and pedal steel. Although Last Train Home's cover of Paul Kelly's classic obscurity "To Her Door" doesn't quite match the greatness of the original, the band deserves bonus points for giving new life to one of the best break-up/make-up songs ever penned. ~ John D. Luerssen, All Music Guide