Yearling

VINYL FORMAT. On their new and second full release, Yearling, The Parson Red Heads deliver on the great promise that has been steadily building during their eight years as a band, including their first ever full length to be issued on vinyl (Timber Carnival Records). Yearling was recorded over a series of many months at first in a similar setting, Red Rockets Glare studio in their former home, Los Angeles, with close friend and sometimes band member Raymond Richards producing. Several of the songs on the record were done later on unfamiliar terrain, at Mitch Easter's Fidelitorium in North Carolina with alternative pop legends Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter producing and engineering, respectively. Stamey mixed the record.

Yearling has a timeless quality that continues and expands the classic pop country-rock lineage stretching from The Byrds and Fleetwood Mac to The Jayhawks and Wilco. Lead singer, Evan hears those reference points, but says the band feels a stronger musical kinship with contemporaries such as Blitzen Trapper, Fleet Foxes, Dawes, The Fruit Bats. While many of the songs start in a mid-tempo, they tend to go off into a much looser and rocking instrumental direction near the end of the song (check out "When You Love Somebody", "Hazy Dream" and "Time is Running Out"). "Kids Hanging Out", a fast and loud power pop gem that is a highlight of their live shows. The record opens with "Burning Up the Sky", a perfect introduction to the band's warm vibe, with their defining vocal harmonies front and center. "Unemotional" is a particularly affecting and sophisticated highlight of the record.