This concept album is the follow-up to Portland, Oregon band Richmond Fontaine’s We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River. The album is set against the backdrop of a mid-west logging community. A love story between a young auto-parts salesgirl and a mechanic, both already married, sets the scene for deception and tragedy. Richmond Fountaine Songwriter Willy Vlautin is no stranger to this bleak terrain, where lost souls face emotional and physical entanglements, usually with dire consequences. The band’s catalogue is enriched with such stories, which have seen Vlautin hailed as a great storyteller, of the ilk of Elmore Leonard and Raymond Carver. But Richmond Fountaine isn’t just about Vlautin’s writing; he is well complemented by a great band, whose sound is of the alt-country tradition: the likes of Uncle Tupelo and Willard Grant Conspiracy; their previous records have been hailed as masterpieces by the influential UK rock mag, Uncut. The High Country will serve to consolidate this band’s solid reputation.

Michael Awosoga-Samuel is from Readings Carlton