Thirty Tigers
2009
Oh Tall Tree In The Ear
About This Album
The Matheny family from Chapel Hill offers another album of power pop-infused alternative country songs with Oh Tall Tree in the Ear. As on Roman Candle's previous releases, Skip Matheny sings passionately about romance, heartbreak, and life on the road while his wife, Timshel, riffs away on guitar and brother Logan attacks or cuddles the drums as appropriate. Obvious influences the dB's, Van Morrison, and Big Star inform most of the album's 11 songs; dBer Chris Stamey returns to co-produce with Jason Lehning, and the result is a bright, bold, and somewhat epic concoction that too frequently drowns out the vocals, making the lyrics a little hard to grasp. The first half of the album greatly outpaces the somewhat lazy-feeling second half, with openers "Eden Was a Garden" and "One More Road" setting a standard that isn't really met again until the Phil Spector production-style closer, "Early Aubade." Literary references are littered throughout, but they'll slip past most listeners' radar. "Why Modern Radio Is A-OK" is kind of funny in its satirical take on lost love. In the song, Matheny sings that it's just fine to listen to "high school emo bands.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3 and 4)

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