"It's like the Laurel Canyon sound played by the kids who were smashing up the clubs a few years later," is how producer Brett Gurewitz explains what emerged when Greg Graffin, academic and frontman of iconic LA punk band Bad Religion, joined up with members of another like-minded outfit, Social Distortion, to make what is a surprisingly winning example of the new retro-1970s Southern Californian country rock. The years may have softened the punks' cough – they are not alone – but on these 10 tracks they channel their energy into ruminative bucolic wonderings of time and space decorated by guitar solos and harmonies from another era. All but one of the tracks – the exception being Norman Blake's evocative Lincoln's Funeral Train – carry Graffin's signature. His grainy, lived-in voice is another signature although this is very much a collective effort as the title track, Backroads Of My Mind and Shotgun testify. anti.com

joe breen