April 1, 2003
On the one hand, there's the music you listen to and it makes you feel really old, bringing up memories that either make you smile or make you blush from embarrassment of having liked it in the first place.
Then there's the music you listen to that just makes you feel ... well, mature is probably the best word. Mature because you recognize the quality of form and excellence of execution and you realize that by merely taking it in you're expanding your own artistic vocabulary.
Listening to Last Train Home makes you feel mature. The folks at the Washington Area Music Association felt pretty much the same way, awarding LTH their WAMMIE for 2002 Artist of the Year.
The veteran nine-piece (give or take, depending on the situation) band, fronted by longtime (now former)Washington Post nightlife columnist Eric Brace, has just released their third full-length project, "Time And Water," which, like previous efforts "True North" and their self-titled debut, finds the group extremely hard to pin down to a single genre. They can roots rock with the best of them, but they'll also roll out some bluegrass on you, spin out a country yarn and then come back with ballads that will break your heart.
Brace, drummer Martin Lynds and bassist Jim Gray are in various stages of relocating to Nashville, giving this business of music the full-time go. But Last Train Home will remain intact in its current form, because why give up on an investment that's paying dividends when it's matured so well to this point?
-Lucas Hendrickson, Nashville Rage