The Runaway Grooms - This Road EP (2023)

The Runaway Grooms’ latest EP, This Road. The album was produced by Jeremy Horn & The Runaway Grooms. The album draws you in like a bird song at dawn that turns into a mind-blowing sunrise, with music you can feel in your bones.

The mournful “Jenny” opens the record, with swirling electric jam-bandy music. This is a real love song, and will activate your “swaying back and forth on your feet” response.

“Mister Ford” sets the stage with sustained organ and punctuated electric guitar plucks that sound like bird calls — displaying the beauty of what the psychedelic style music exploration can evoke. A driving but easygoing groove develops from there with some breathy flute sounds popping through here and there and it eventually opens into some wah-wah driving over the top of all the layers.

“This Road,” the title track, continues but this time with a merry feel, and perhaps this song the most crossover to a more rootsy style, and an echo of “Johnny B. Goode” in the midst of the song.

“Heartwork” is a song of weariness with a mid tempo swirling leading into crescendo, and does sound a bit like the Dead in the guitar tones and the organ rhythms, with an impassioned vocal delivery. We all need to do the heart work.

Musicians on the album are Adam Tobin on guitar and vocals; Zach Gilliam on bass and vocals; Cody Scott on organ and piano; Justin Bissett on drums; with Zac Cialek on guitar and vocals; Jakob Corbin on percussion and flute; and Jeremy Horn on vocals.