Some reviews are tough to write because you like the record but seriously dislike the people in the band; others are tough to write because you love the album but just can’t think of anything to say about it beyond the simple fact that you love it. And then there are reviews such as this one…

Full disclosure: I like Truckstop Coffee as people. I sent the CD to other blogs in the hopes they’d get some more press and I’ve even helped hook them up with a booking agent. If those facts make reading this a problem for you, skip to the bottom, listen to the songs and to hell with my typing about it.

For the remaining folks, yes, I consider Pete, Caleb and Larry friends, but I also consider them a terrific band. I first heard of them play back in 2006 in the infancy of Ninebullets. At the time they were doing a pretty good Lucero-meets-Drive-By Trucker’s impression in support of their debut, One Damn Thing To Redeem. Throughout the years, they’ve made it up to Tampa a couple or four times, but rarely have they strayed from the tracklisting of that first album. There were rumors of a new album one day, but, as any struggling musician knows, recording, mixing and mastering an album requires money and there ain’t much of that coming in from playing little bars and backyard parties. Eventually, Pete self-recorded a solo acoustic album and I just assumed the eventual next release, For Dear Life, would just be full band arrangements of some of the songs from that release.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.