2014-02-28
Love Runner is Mollie O'Brien and Rich Moore, the
wife and husband duo's second studio album together, and this time at the
center is the universal theme of home. O'Brien released eight records before
working with her husband, who had made a name for himself in the Colorado
acoustic music scene. The album features three original songs and eight covers,
creating a diverse sound mostly within the Country and Folk genres. The album
opens with Dave Van Ronk's "Sunday Street," O'Brien's vocals bringing new meaning
to the originally male told story. "Went Back Home" is the first original track
on the album. Its autobiographical nature rhythmically swings through years of
romance, heartache and commitment. The second original and title track, "Love
Runner," is charged with sexual desire, veiled in rusty truck metaphors and
accordion riffs. The last original track, "Don't Let The Devil Ride," features
O'Brien's impressive, ease-filled vocals, Moore's guitar mastery, and their
friends' fantastic instrumentation in a song that leans beyond the Folk genre,
toward a Jazz/Blues sound. Robbie Fulks' "They Want Me Here" brings the fiddle
in a lyrically driven folk song. The album closes with O'Brien's voice towering
over a building instrumentation in the folk-feeling "Green Summertime."
Richard Martin
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