Every Star in Rockingham County

Rockingham County is in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, and Dogwood Tales have packed it into this album: a song named after Ralph Sampson, the town’s most famous basketball player; McDonald’s Coke and high school football in “McMemories”; a friend in tears over a plate of fried chicken in “Angel Dreams”. “Mt. Jackson” goes from Kyle Grim’s uncle in a hospital bed to the bills that follow. It’s an album of big feelings in small places.

MJ Lenderman, who has songs called “Dan Marino” and “Toontown”, is the obvious comparison, though Grim and Ben Ryan play their own “Ralph Sampson” and “Princess Peach” with a straight face instead of Lenderman’s wry smile.

They’ve played together since high school, when both were in pop-punk bands in neighbouring towns, and the opener, “Soundcheck Infinity”, looks back to practice sessions loud enough to draw parental complaints. Perhaps that’s where the touches of Midwest emo come from. Otherwise the debt is to Neil Young. For every pedal steel line there’s a distorted lead or a wash of shoegaze, and the songs mostly move at their own unhurried pace. The standout for me is “Shield”, the longest thing here at five minutes, which starts slowly before vanishing into a wall of fuzz.