Sparks Would Fly

1. Baby, I Must Go

2. It Ain't Love Just Yet

3. Plans To Leave

4. In Another Year (Or Two)

5. Gone, Gone, Gone

6. Freeborn, Idaho

7. The Matter With Us

8. One Of Us

9. Time Like The Present

10. Faraway Men (& Faithless Women)

11. Gone #2

Editorial Reviews

Bill Snyder Twin Cities Revue, March 11, 1999
Twin Cities Revue 3/11/99

"Back 'round 1950, country music was on the cusp of a major change. A pending liason with rhythm and blues would soon give the world something known as rock 'n' roll, and music fans were quickly split so far apart that the subsequent melding of rock and country was considered radical. Still, for this brief period, country, not rock was the music of sex, booze and rebellion. With his second album fronting the Faraway Men, Patrik Tanner-the guitar powerhouse that once shook Tina's B-Sides and Martin Zellar's Hardways-revisits that period with his sights set on sincerity, not nostalgia. This isn't your typical post-punk, alt-country derivative. This is the real thing.

Lyrically, the subjects at hand here aren't buried in deep, cryptic poetics, but plastered in the titles: "Baby, I Must Go," "Plans To Leave," "The Matter With Us." This is an album of heartache. Still, given Mark Juenemann's slappin' bass and drummer Brandon Fjetland's snare-driven beat, it's the kind of heart-break that makes you wanna kick up your heels and go two-steppin.

Tanner's pleasant twang and love of country harmony fills the album with sparse-but-sweet vocal arrangements; his knacl for simple embellishments, like chiming bells or a few strings, fill tracks like the striking "Gone, Gone, Gone" with plenty of catchy pop innocence. Throughout, he proves himself a masterful guitarist, layering acousitic, electric and lap steel guitars with mandolin in a restrained manner that keeps his focus on making good music, rather than making the cover of Guitarist Magazine.

Sparks Would fly is unlikely to be the album that pushes pop into its next giant step into the future. Still, it brims with enough passion and authenticity to bring a rich part of history back to life.

Product Description
On Patrik Tanner's sophmore outing with the Faraway Men, he takes a turn towards a Bakersfield sound reminecent of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. The lyrics are all about leaving and the Faraway Men play one mean shuffle after another. Things get downright sentimental on a few ballads that echoes producer Billy Sherrill's work with George Jones in the mid-70's. Top notch storytelling and one great sounding album.

Sparks Would Fly

Sparks Would Fly,Patrik Tanner & Faraway Men,Dark One,Americana rolled with a little twang but on the lighter side of both.,Country

Rock Music: