Track Listing
1. Whiskey Walk
2. Wild and Young
3. Rewind
4. Angels
5. She Don't Cry No More
6. Hurts Like Hell
7. All We Know
8. Wouldn't Want to Be You
9. A Man Can Change
10. Other Side of You
11. Roll On

Album Notes
Personnel: Jaren Johnston (vocals, guitar); Kelby Ray (vocals); Ben Brown (guitar); Neil Mason (drums).Audio Mixer: Chris Lord-Alge.Recording information: Blackbird Studios, Nashville, TN; Plantation Mixing & Recording, Haiku, HI.Photographers: James Minchin III; John Peets.Hailing from Nashville, American Bang are steeped in tradition but they're hardly part of the Music City Mafia. No country stars they: they're styled as blue-collar, middle-American hard rockers, at least when the tempos are revved up and they're doing the "Whiskey Walk." When things slow down -- and not even all the way down to a ballad, just enough for a mid-tempo anthem -- it becomes clear that they're the first of what is likely to be many bands indebted to Kings of Leon, substituting earthbound barroom rock for KOL's Americana pretensions and U2 aspirations. Thanks to veteran producer Bob Rock, the group is slickly effective -- he provides a brick wall of sound that almost camouflages Jaren Johnston's drawl and gives those echoey arena-fillers definition. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

stan B. DOBRY