The Roamers - The Roamers (2024) Hi-Res

With enough rough edges to call it rock n roll and enough dusty twang to call it country, The Roamers embrace every genre of American music they can put their ears on. Their music is a sonic journey through the highways and byways of American culture, embracing the roaming spirit and adventurous freedom that defines the open road.Equally at home kicking up boots in a naugahyde booth at the local dive bar or tearing up the asphalt on a two-lane headed out of town, The Roamers will kick start the good times and get you out of your seat. Plug in, let's go!

Band leader Matt Rice has been a steady fan and performer of live music in the Los Angeles area for years. In a delirious moment of clarity, he busted out of the doldrums of dead end desk jobs in 2022 and slammed the door behind him. With just enough bravery to dream of independence and creativity, and just enough audacity to try it, Matt formed the Roamers in 2023 and he hasn't looked back. The Roamers are dead serious about good-time live music and their first album comes out in 2024.

The LP was produced by Brian Whelan, Luke Adams & Matt Rice in Los Angeles. Music like this was once called cowpunk & groups like Rubber Rodeo dabbled in this wonderfully. The twang wasn’t corny & the Steve Earle-Tom Cochrane edge hovers just out of range. Their vocals are authoritative & in some cases, the tunes are good enough that an outlaw singer like Waylon Jennings would’ve covered them (“Favorite Things”).

The guitars are a solid wall of gratifying excess – yes, excess. But sometimes when something tastes good you want to pig out. This music is pig-out music. Pass a napkin. It possesses many phantom strains of retro music that have been polished up so brightly it’s new. Do they follow a formula? Sure, they do. That’s the reason the flavor lingers. Even the slight 60s vocal echo on “Lights Down Low” is impulsively good. Sounds like it was recorded in an empty bathroom shower. But it works…it works well.

Matt Rice’s vocals are perfectly suited for these pieces. He can hit the mark as a mainstream commercial singer but manages the more purposeful material. “Room To Roam,” reeks of Robert Gordon without the baritone inflections & the song retains the melodic rockabilly bump of Rocky Burnette (“Tired of Toein’ the Line”) with quirky Webb Wilder torque.

The showcase has its country flexibility (“One Side of the Bed”) but it never goes cornpone hokey. It certainly breaks up the more expressive tunes that dominate the set. When the band slips back into their country drive it’s a clear superficial mix of outlaw Waylon with guitarist Duane Eddy on “Keep On Rollin’,” — a nifty upbeat danceable fitting. Whereas the concluding piece “Where the Road Is Always Open,” slides into home base as the Los Lobos would & I might add – they score.