California Baseball Band- understanding moral ambiguity

It feels less morally ambiguous to write a review about a friend’s album when you wholeheartedly enjoy every song on it, which is the only reason I decided I had to share California Baseball Band with you. CBB is a five piece made up of the remnants of other college bands and solo projects, mostly centering around Lakeland, FL. The band’s been in existence for only a year or two, and play relatively steadily (there’s families to balance, hearts to be broken, and other bands to work in) in their central Florida stomping grounds. Their Deep Creek EP is the first seriously recorded outing for them, a five-song collection showcasing every aspect of the group’s versatility. The songwriting, instrumentation, and singing evolves gradually from track to track giving you an idea of the wide base this group has been built upon. Incorporating traditional guitar, banjo, harmonica, and even mandolin CBB presents a well orchestrated but simplistic approach to the music they’re playing. Each member of the band is a more than capable songwriter in their own rights, and the mix that they’ve struck together has enabled them to not only write catchy folk-rock songs(I still feel weird liking music when using that genre…does Americana work?), but to write songs with true musical integrity. As straightforward as some of these tracks seem, none of them are boring. The collection of instruments, multiple singers throughout the album sets them apart from other cookie-cutter attempts at this now revitalized area of music. Production wise the whole album came out really nice, the vocals are mixed perfectly, never seeming over the top, and the delicate picking(of banjos,guitars,mandos) is perfectly showcased. Steady drumming, pretty banjo, and wailing harmonica are staples throughout the release; lay in some well-written, yet country-feeling lyrics, and Deep Creek is charmingly southern to say the least. It feels real, both in musical and lyrical design, and it’s that authenticity that makes this five-song EP unique. Oh yah, it’s streaming on their bandcamp, but if you like it as much as I did it’s well worth the $5.