Eeaston, Stagger, Phillips- One For the Ditch

Easton, Stagger, Phillips is a super group. The good kind. 3 of the best singer-songwriters in alt. country music come together on this low key collection of originals. Though each of the three can certainly rock out, One For the Ditch is the sound of “3 friends playing songs on the porch”. They keep it simple and mainly acoustic with splashs of pedal steel and other instrumentation to flesh out a couple of songs. The album never sounds forced and always sounds fun, finding a rich middle ground between the Jayhawks and Gillian Welch-David Rawlings best work.


Tim Easton (Joshua Tree, California) is a tremendous solo artist, whose last album Ammunition featured none other than Lucinda Williams and Gary Louris. He’s a great songwriter and a terrific live performer. He has 4 solo records to his name, each with a different take on his folk rock sound. 2001’s Truth About Us featured Wilco (2000 line-up) as a backing band.

Leeroy Stagger (Victoria, Canada) is one of my new favorite artists of all time (how come no one told me about this guy before?). His rough and ragged alt. country record Depression River and the limited release EP Tales From the Back Porch are like a combination of Neil Young, Steve Earle, the Drive-By Truckers, and all that is holy in this world. If your a fun of the punk rock meets country meets Neil Young guitar freak outs, you need to check this guy out.

Evan Phillips (Anchorage, Alaska) is a member/songwriter of the Whipsaws, an alt. country type band that I’ve heard good things about, but have yet to really listen to (note to self: must get on that). However, his songs are some of my favorite on this record (”Highway”, “She’s Gone”). On “Too Many Rainy Days”, Phillips channels early Jeff Tweedy (back when he wrote lyrics that made some sort of sense).

Sorry for the short review, just wanted to get this out there. This one's on twangville, http://twangville.com/1019/easton-stagger-phillips-one-for-the-ditch/