Roger Bryan and the Old Sweethearts In Regards to Your Affairs Harvest Sum Recordings By Kevin J. Hosey It would be a vast understatement to write that Roger Bryan’s time as guitarist for the (rather good) emo band Last Conservative prepared many of us listeners for this CD, which has many Western New Yorkers, including some I’d consider among the most jaded and critical, to hail this band as Buffalo’s Wilco; not being a major Wilco fan, I’d say this is not just an excellent country rock/alt.country/whatever recording, but way beyond the years Bryan (in his 20s) has actually lived. Despite his relative youth, Bryan and company don’t sound forced or like genre robbers, and his vocal weariness also does not sound strained. Among the standout songs is “Just Another Storm,” ringing, anthemic country rock, where Bryan is being pulled away by things beyond his control; is he looking for a reason to leave or just finding more reasons to go? “Left Behind” starts with acoustic guitar and voice and slowly builds (nice lap steel guitar from Erik , whose last name is not listed) as Bryan noted his loneliness; “Lay Down and Die,” with choppy electric guitar from Bryan, is what he’ll do if she won’t love him. The song that impresses me the most is “Wasted Afternoon,” which starts out sounding like early, moodier Velvet Underground, slow and thick, before showing off a bit more country sound and moving to a somewhat quicker chugging tempo and echoey country rock; frankly, I’m not sure what the song is about, but it doesn’t matter when it sounds this good. “Careless Love,” which opens the CD, has Bryan going crazy after losing his lover for not taking it seriously and hoping she’ll let him try again; the song starts with acoustic guitar and touch of electric underneath before the band joins in, with Mark Nosowicz’s Moog synthesizer adding some cool, eerie sounds. Contact www.theoldsweethearts.com or www.Harvestsum.com for more information.	Opaline Ghosts of Dust and Tar By Kevin J. Hosey Blend singer Alex Lynne, songwriter/acoustic guitarist David Mussen and multi-instrumentalist/producer Jonathan Hughes, and going into the project called Opaline, I had no idea what to expect, which added to the surprise of hearing this fantastic CD, a mixture of so much, including country, pop, electronics, ambient music, walls of sound and emotion. Lynne, known for her country pop rock sounds fronting her former band the Redhearts, solo and in duets with Jim Whitford, joins Hughes, best known for electronic music, dronelab.com and his former band with Mussen, Lotusflower, in often lush settings, including the CD opener, “Payne County,” where she watches the family crops slowly die from lack of rain in a moody, Dustbowl/Depression setting, with Hughes’ electric guitar adding dread and anger; “A Way” has an almost funky bass line as Lynne sings that she can’t keep living with her anger and seeks to release all of her hate and darkness; the song picks up the tempo a bit as Hughes’ guitar shimmers. Lynne, singing as sensually here as she has on any recording, seems to be daydreaming on “Cold Outside” over fluid guitar, remembering her bad times and showing how people can think of people worse off than themselves to hide from their problems; a man unknowingly leaves his lover’s house for the last time on “Red River,” as he drowns from a flood on the way home, with Joelle Labert supplying some nice harmony vocals. “Wake Me” is another dreamy song, on which Lynne doesn’t want complacency to ruin or dull her relationship with a lover; Whitford plans some smart pedal steel guitar. “Ashford Hollow” sounds like a slow, summer Sunday afternoon with Lynne’s almost whispered vocals virtually stream of conscious. To lighten things up a little, the group covers Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Disclosure: Val took the band photo on the inner sleeve. Opaline can be contacted at www.opalinemusic.com.