New Earth Farmers - The Sky From The Underground (2024)

On New Earth Farmers' website composer, singer, guitarist and keyboard player Paul Knowles tells us that he and composer, vocalist, and guitarist Nicole Storto never stick to one style when writing music. He says that "the song drives the treatment and genre of each track." Their lyrics are the primary concern in an era when they "often take a backseat to style, fashion, materialism, and hipness."

Because their emphasis is on composition you need to spend some time with The Farmers' new album, The Sky From The Underground, to fully absorb their work. Trust me, it'll be worth your while.

Knowles and Storto display their love of topical songwriting with "War Inside Our Hearts," a track he said is inspired by the greatest of all punk bands, The Clash."You say your way is better than another. That’s how our minds are torn apart."

"Frequency" tackles the devastatingly sad subject of gun violence and "Windfall" is an environmental song. "There’s a big storm coming and the world is on fire. There’ll be hell to pay if we don’t do something now."

There are seven Knowles-Storti originals and two superb covers. They reworked Tom Petty's "Have Love Will Travel" and do their very best to sound like The Heartbreakers. They also take on George Harrison's "Behind That Closed Door" featuring some very nice pedal steel work from guest star Dave Zirbel. It's from All Things Must Pass, the late Beatle's magnificent,1970 triple LP. Going by whose songs they're covering, I'll bet you the Farmers are fans of The Traveling Wilburys.

The Sky From The Underground was recorded by a quintet after Knowles and Storto started out as a duo over a decade ago. They can rock fairly hard but never to the point where people sensitive to loud music will be turned away because the group knows when to reign in any tendencies to blast your ears into oblivion. I would categorize them as a modern day Americana band, but their influences are vast.