Dogwood Tales is a modern Americana band from the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia. I think I had heard of the group a little while back, but when someone shared their album on an Instagram story the other day, I figured I ought to check them out. A description of the group’s 2016 EP describes the music as “like a contemporary take on Neil Young’s Harvest”, which is a pretty sweet idea. Based on what I can tell, the group seems pretty well-versed in American music, be it with a country or folksy inflection. I’m pretty excited to give this one a listen, so with that said, I’m going to jump on into the music.
“Riding Horses” begins with some super flavorful acoustic guitar that sounds like the tune belongs at the beginning of the credits of an American story of sorts. Oh wow, the pedal steel guitar and starts painting a country sky in the background, and the keys come in to add some gentle yet very flavorful accentuations. The tune seems to gradually pick up steam as the song progresses, with the smooth bass guitar becoming a bit more audible, and near the end the electric guitar comes in with a bit of distortion and a fair amount of twang. The pacing of the tune has felt very natural throughout as well. Great track, and I’m excited to listen to more.
Oh wow, “There Goes the Light” begins with some acoustic and electric guitar, which seems to have a bit of a gentle gallop set by the beat of the drums. Oh wow, the electric guitar has a really great flavor, which reminds me a bit of the Sturgill Simpson that I listened to just yesterday, which seems to feel like some sort of surf rock-esque wave of country flavor, and I’m digging it. Oh wow, the instrumentation is super sweet in this track. Super sweet tune.
Oh wow, “Easy on Your Mind” starts out with some electric guitar that you can nearly feel the country howl of emotions coming from the notes. Oh wow, the piano has a sound that reminds me a fair deal of Lee Gallagher & The Hallelujah’s album, L.A. Yesterday (2020). The waves of country sound seem to be a more modern trend in country music, and I absolutely dig it. Holy smokes, the guitar lick during what might be considered a mini guitar solo was super flavorful, and absolutely has hooked my ears further into this album. Great track.
Oh wow, “Just for a Day” seems to swell or fade in the music, almost giving the impression that the band was continually playing the tune for hours before this segment we get to hear in the album. I really dig this tune so far, as the weight behind the instrumentation feels massive with momentum, and the general direction of the tune nearly suggests a highlight of an American coming of age story, though I don’t have any real insights into what the group was going for. Whatever the theme of the story in the song is, the music feels all-pervading and has a natural ebb and flow of modern country rock sounds, which to me again has a feel of surf rock meets country rock, and I’m digging it. Oh wow, this instrumental jam is absolutely delicious. The tune seems to fade out in a similar fashion to how it faded in, suggesting that the band might have continued rocking endlessly. Great tune.
Oh wow, “Verbena” seems to have an Americana folksy feel with the intricate sounding acoustic guitar parts at the beginning, as well as the gently harmonized chorus vocals that come in as the track progresses. The tune also lacks any electrified instruments so far, unless there’s a clean electric bass in the mixture of strings, but I don’t think that’s the case. I really dig this sound in this tune, which reminds me to a certain degree of acoustic covers of hard rock or metal tunes, combining a folksy feel with alternative rock. Great track.
“Mood Ring” starts out with some pleasant pedal steel guitar that immediately paints a country soundscape, alongside some earthy acoustic guitar to seemingly ground the tune a bit. Oh wow, the electric guitar comes in with some flavorful distortion and a good amount of twang. Oh wow, this tune gets grooving really nicely when the electric guitar comes front and center, and has a pleasantly relaxed flow in between these rockin’ parts, which you can hear reflected in the feel of the vocals really nicely. Super sweet tune.
Oh wow, “Hard to Be Anywhere (Demo)” starts out with some strange high pitch tremelo’d notes from either an electric guitar or a keyboard, which immediately gets me hooked further into the album. The feel of the drums and bass has a classic sounding country/country rock feel, reminiscent of groups like Longbranch/Pennywhistle. The acoustic guitar seems to be both rhythmic and melodic at times as the tune continues, adding flavorful accentuations while keeping the flow of the tune in time with the rhythm section. Oh wow, the outro to the tune is super pleasant as well. Great track.
“Truck Stop Town” begins with some easy-going acoustic guitar, with the chord progression taking on a bit of slow, stuttered galloping sort of sound. Oh wow, some more instrumentation in the form of an electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, bass guitar, and drums come in to seemingly paint what sounds to be a country sunset of sorts, which seems to have a sound of being on an east coast beach and watching the sun go behind the mountains for the night, with waves from the Pacific Ocean slowly rolling up the shore behind you. Oh wow, the snares at the end of the tune have so much weight and feeling behind them, super sweet. Great tune.
Oh wow, “Closest Thing to Heaven” begins with a washing of sounds between the distortion of the electric guitar and the earthy acoustic guitar that combine with the pedal steel guitar to evoke that seemingly modern wavy country rock sound that seems to nearly have a bit of a surfing sort of sound. Oh wow, the instrumental sections in this tune have a really groovy flowing sound about them. Great track, and a super sweet way to wrap up the album.
Wow, I’m glad I checked out Dogwood Tales tonight. The more I listen to modern country rock artists like Dogwood Tales, the more I seem to hear a sound that seems like classic country rock picked up a feeling of surf rock, as if the cowboys of old made it to the ocean and started surfing. This might be coincidental, as my exposure of modern country rock (and country rock in general) is not as large as my exposure to other genres is. Regardless, the resulting sound in this album is filled with Americana sounds in different inflections of country and folk genres, with a very pleasant flow throughout, and songwriting that hooks the listener in with flavorful instrumentation and lyrics that seem to applicable to a wide audience while still having its own narrative. If you enjoy modern country and Americana such as Sturgill Simpson, you might want to consider checking out this album. If you do decide to give this album a listen, I sincerely do hope that you enjoy the listening experience at least as much as I did.
-A