The trend for many record labels these days is to sign an artist to a record deal, release a record and hope it garners a hit or two and sells a boatload of records. Typically, if these factors don’t happen, a label will drop that artist like dead weight. Fortunately for The Lost Trailers, BNA Records stuck with them and allowed them to record a sophomore album. Actually, the label most likely let them record a few more tracks and when “Holler Back” hit at radio, the band packaged six new songs with four of the better tracks from their Self-titled BNA album from 2006.
Perhaps BNA stuck with The Lost Trailers because songwriter/guitarist Stokes Neilsen is so good at crafting a song that it was only a matter of time before the band would break through with an interesting song. “Holler Back” was just that song. Playing on the old hip hop phrase of “Holla Back” (which means to call out/call later), the song turns into a guy describing the backwoods, country lifestyle he grew up in. It’s a decent introduction to the band but don’t for a second think that this hit song is what defines The Lost Trailers, a seasoned road band which got its name after losing three equipment-packed trailers.
Songs like “Country Folks (Living Loud),” which recalls Alabama’s “Song of the South”, the Springsteen-ish country rocker “Hey Baby” and “Summer of Love” are much more representative of The Lost Trailers overall sound, which is an amalgam of heartland rock, contemporary country and straight ahead rock. The album closer, “Gravy” is one of the four ‘revived’ songs and it is an interesting song in that it uses a story of a struggling farmer and what they do to survive (Much like the main character of the show “Weeds” they turn to, well growing and selling marijuana).
The Fiddle-laced “Blacktop Road” is an acoustically-driven rocker that covers a worn theme about leaving home as a young person only to return to the simple life later on but the song remains interesting because the melody played by the tight band and the vocal from Rhyder Lee is memorable. While only 10 songs long, The Lost Trailers (which consist of Lee, Neilson, drummer Jeff Porter, keyboardist Andrew Neilson and bassist Manny Medina) fifth full-length album is a good introduction into a band with a lot going for it. “Holler Back” is an album that has at least three more radio-ready singles on it (with “Country Folks” being a likely one).
You can support the Lost Trailers by purchasing this album at iTunes | amazon
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