From the good folks over at fiftycentlighter.blogspot.com - Whispering Pines is a five-piece country-rock outfit from Los Angeles that sounds as though it was lifted straight out of the Laurel Canyon music scene that overtook the City of Angels in the late 1960's... with a little Allman-style southern soul tossed in for good measure. If the musical homage to the sounds of the past isn't clue enough to where this band is coming from, their name is lifted straight from a classic track by The Band. On their debut album, Family Tree, Whispering Pines plow through nine groove-filled tunes. All the while, they create a fresh sound by paying solid homage to the past. The lazy slide guitar of the album opening title track gives way to the swampy CCR shuffle of "Brand New Beat" and continues to impress all the way through to the album closing "Songbird," with its CSNY style harmonies. If the whole thing sounds well-aged and worn, that's because the whole thing was recorded with vintage 1970's equipment in Elliott Smith's Van Nuys, CA studio.
