Jon Snodgrass - Visitor's Band (2009)

Since Drag The River broke up , it stood to reason that Jon and Chad would be releasing solo efforts. It was my understanding that Chad should have one coming out by the end of 2009, and while I wouldn t put the notion of another Drag The River album completely to bed, Mr. Snodgrass was the first to strike with Visitor s Band. Over the course of 2008 Jon managed to book studio time on both coasts and places inbetween to record Visitor s Band. He also managed to pull in a few collaborators like Chad Rex, Joey Erg, Chris Pierce and ninebullets.net faves, Two Cow Garage. It would be easy to assume that the album just sounds like a Drag album without Chad singing on any of the tracks, but that would be selling the album short. While the album is rife with Drag The River familiarities, namely the comforting sound of Jon s voice and it s nasally twang, Visitor s Band spends a lot of time rocking in a way that is more Armchair Martian than Drag The River. The real star of the cd is Jon s voice itself. During the slow, sad songs it s there to comfort and wallow in the misery with you and during the rockers it s there to pound shots and sing-along with you, swaying shoulder to shoulder. As an added bonus, the final track of the album follows the Drag The River tradition of being the entire album again, but instead of just being the entire album as one track, Visitor s Band offers up the entire album again acoustically. It s a fantastic addition to an album that was already Essential Listening. --Nine Bullets