There are few songs that strike a chord like those about a soldier returning home from war.  Four-piece Stillwater,  Okla. band Clint Osmus and The Bushmills chose to close their 10-song debut album with an acoustic version of a John Prine classic, “Sam Stone”.  The title character in this folk-country ballad returns and runs into all kinds of challenges once home.  It’s the type of song that you’d hear during the 1960’s/Vietnam Era, and it doesn’t refer to a specific conflict, but it clearly stands out on this album. The lyric that jumps out at the listener is – “sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.”

Some tracks on this self-titled debut were produced by Red Dirt legend Mike McClure (of The Great Divide fame) and others by Jerry Payne of No Justice.  Not surprisingly, the album is line with the country-rock approach of Osmus’ Stillwater predecessors – McClure, No Justice and Jason Boland & The Stragglers.  Darcy McKee plays bass guitar, Jeremy Clark is on drums and Cody Patton is the lead guitarist.
Patton shines on songs like “Never Met You”, which has more of a rock edge, and Osmus vocals are far superior on the ballads like “Pass You By” and “Stranger”.  We learn why good girls stay away rambling men on “Sweet Alicia” – the highlight of the album aside from “Stone”, about a musician who chose the road over his sweetheart.  It clearly has the most straight-ahead country approach on the album.
There’s also a recurring theme of songs about women missing the narrator – “Someday”, “See You Around” and “When She Runs Back Into Me”.

You can support CLint Osmus and the bushmills by purchasing this album at iTunes | Amazon.