There’s something endlessly comforting about late 80’s country music. The way it prioritizes storytelling above all else, unfolding ordinary lives in three-minute tales backed by pedal steel, gentle acoustic strums, and three piece vocal harmonies that sound like a warm breeze floating through the air on a warm summer night. Shenandoah’s The Road Not Taken is a perfect time capsule of that moment in time. It’s a record that is sung with sincerity and just the right amount of twang. There’s no overblown choruses. No massive production tricks. No gratuitous references to Coors Light or parties at the lake. Its focus is on the simple celebration of everyday life, built to echo across car radios and kitchens where a Sunday Crock-Pot has been cooking all day. To me it is a sound that defines the understated beauty of late 80’s country. Warm like grandma’s peach pie.
Standout Songs: “Sunday In The South”, “Two Dozen Roses”, “The Road Not Taken”
