Southeast Engine: Canary

Part wilderness excursion, part history lesson and part revival meeting, Southeast Engine’s music is intent on transporting listeners, be it to another place or another plane. The Ohio quartet’s fifth album, Canary, features songs that journey through the mountains, by the lake, and back through time, all in search of what frontman Adam Remnant calls “the place I once called home” in the album-opener “Curse Of Canannville.” Building from a base of loping country-rock, Southeast Engine frequently breaks into a full gallop, playing with wild abandon and outright joy even when singing songs about the Great Depression. The band gets a little too loose at times, resulting in songs that have a strong drive but never get anywhere. But Remnant has full command of his warbling voice, and calls on gospel and bluegrass traditions as he describes hard times and hard places, always taking special note of the people and traditions that make life easier, remembering that “sure things could be better… at least we have each other.”