The LoneTones: Press/Reviews

When listening to "Canaries," the new album by local roots-music band The LoneTones, do not attempt to adjust your CD player.

You may think you're experiencing technical difficulty -- especially as the album's second song, the title track, begins. There's a gentle wave of white noise that fades into the music, something that on an album by any other band would hardly be noticed.

But this is The LoneTones. Led by the husband-wife team of Sean McCollough and Steph Gunnoe, it's a group with deep roots in the local folk scene. McCollough and Gunnoe are activists for a number of causes as much as they are musicians, green advocates who campaign against mountain-top removal and can be counted on to get behind any number of causes that protect the landscape from irresponsible development.

Which makes it even more surprising to hear on "Canaries" something so ... mechanical, for lack of a better word.

"I think there's something really pleasing about dissonance," Gunnoe told The Daily Times this week. "I think we're really melodically driven musicians, but it's so pleasing to somehow wed something really melodic with a more complex dissonance or background. After a while, you begin to kind of lose interest in your earlier work, and on 'Canaries,' I truly like that old keyboard we found with the crazy noises it can make. We're pretty happy with this record, and it may be a prototype for a new style."

That dissonance may seem out-of-place on an initial listen to "Canaries," but repeated plays find McCollough and Gunnoe at a creative peak. The sound effects are understated -- sly and soft, contributing to a song's mood or melody in almost indefinable ways. The layers are arranged in gorgeous stacks, like the shimmering icing of a wedding cake -- intricate, detailed and personable. Gunnoe's girlish voice is another instrument in the mix, and as it swirls and bobs on a sea of lush instrumentation, there's a dreamlike quality to "Canaries" that's fascinating and endearing.

Click below to read more.

Modern Appalachia – a delight

The Lonetones are a traditional looking combo with acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin and upright bass and a vocalist with a crystal clear high lonesome sound but that’s only the sheep’s clothing as there is a wolf lurking behind the façade. A wolf of fuzzed guitar, sonic effects, barbed lyricism and social commentary.

The album opens with a beautiful mandolin driven paean where singer Steph Gunhoe rails against her home ‘Here in the South’ – I "ain’t gonna shut my mouth". This is soon followed by the title track ‘Canaries’ which rides in on a wave of effects that perfectly frame the wooden sounds that follow with Gunhoe’s vocals , dare I say.. ‘perched’.. on top. The bridge with its distorted guitar had thoughts of Wilco flying round the room.

The heart of this album belongs to the simplicity and purity of the ancient instruments as they drive each clearly defined song, indeed some of the songs could feel too slight when stripped of the artifice of production effects – ‘Mohawk’ is a good example of this. This is nit picking as there is much to love here. ‘Amen’ with its melancholy refrain, the innocence of the vocal in ‘Trickle Down’ with hints of Clare Grogan and the almost African rhythms of ‘Smart Country People’

• "The LoneTones specialize in a singular approach to Appalachian pop that's almost unimaginably sweet and certain to please even the most discerning fan of Americana, alt-country and old-time string ensembles. Soulful songwriting and elegant arrangements abound on the band's two full-lengths, especially 2006's "Nature Hatin' Blues," which at moments evokes the sense of an Appalachian Belle and Sebastian — only better. The band is composed of Steph Gunnoe on guitar and vocals, Sean McCollough on guitar, mandolin, banjo and vocals, bass player Maria Williams, Steve Corrigan on drums and glockenspiel, and drummer emeritus Phil Pollard. This group is a true musical gem."
- Andy Kessler, "Knoxville: From Country Roots to Sludge Metal" on syncmymusic.msn.com.

• Nature Hatin' Blues was featured on NPR's website. Click here to read the story.

• "I am grateful for whatever divine force brought Steph Gunnoe and Sean McCollough together. In addition to their marriage and family, their union has also spawned incredibly beautiful original Americana music...." (Debra Dylan, knoxville520.com)

• "Nature Hatin' Blues: What a charming little album! Their melodies ring." (Sing Out Magazine)

• Nature Hatin' Blues - Top Ten Album of 2006 (boBee Sweet - kdhx, St. Louis, M0)

• "Steph Gunnoe's voice is Appalachian and honest and never overused. Likewise, her melodies and lyrics are smart, catchy and distinctive." (Wayne Bledsoe, Knoxville News Sentinel)

• Their music rings from the mountains of Appalachia with a reverent, enduring and, at times, conflicted spirit. The band mates shoulder their geography with craft and care. (Bradley Hanson, Knoxville Voice)

• "The Soil We Grew Up In" is featured a on Knoxville compilation CD. "The disc includes internationally known acts, including Scott Miller, Donald Brown and RobinElla, and artists who deserve international recognition, including Christabel and the Jons, the Lonetones, Senryu, the American Plague and Sci-Fi Lovestory." (Wayne Bledsoe, Knoxville News Sentinel)