"Recorded in two days, mostly using entire takes with few overdubs, the disc feels like an informal front-porch session between seasoned musicians who have shared endless miles on the road. How else to explain the confident looseness of stomping barn burner "Bound to Go Home," the hoedown ebullience of "Threads," the intuitive heartstring-tugging musicianship of "Rope Don`t Break" ... Add to this the fact that the group has four lead vocalists -- and the remaining members all sing backup -- and it isn`t much of a leap to imagine Or, the Whale as a modern-day incarnation of another gang of rural mythmakers, the Band...over the course of 13 songs, Light Poles and Pines swings effortlessly between knee-clapping bluegrass, campfire country-gospel sing-alongs, straight-up classic Nashville tearjerkers, and probably a few other forms I`m forgetting. Yet taken together, they are a clear and cohesive expression of the back-to-our-roots ethos at work here -- Todd Lavoie, sfbg.com
