Working with Texas Music legend Walt Wilkins in the producer’s chair, Saints Eleven returns with Coming Back Around, the follow-up to 2015’s I Told You. The band, fronted by songwriter Jeff Grossman, tackles 10 original tunes and one Buck Owens tune (“Cryin’ Time”) and after listening to the entirity of this project, it’s easy to see why Walt Wilkins would lend his talents to help the band grow an even larger following than they already have. The songs are well-rounded, strong lyrical pieces with fantastic fiddles, mandolins, steel guitar and guest vocals (Courtney Patton, Jennifer Hodges and Tina Wilkins, Walt Wilkins himself) to bring forth a strong traditional-leaning country record.
Standout tracks on Coming Back Around include the aching title track, as real as anything I’ve heard this decade. Grossman has a homespun, pliable vocal and it suits the songs he writes, songs which could easily be cut by some superstars in Nashville if they had the guts to use their star capitol to cut greats like “Shelter Me,” “Heartbreak Songs,” “Strange Round Here” or “The Same.” The duet with Courtney Patton, “Let Them Go” has a rootsy acoustic feel that would’ve found right at home on an AOR radio station back in the days of country rock domination.
There’s a lot to like about Coming Back Around and here’s hoping that folks stand up and take notice of a strong early 2017 release, something that is on our running list of the best albums released in the past five months.
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