Jonathan Singleton & the Grove

Audio Mixer: Justin Niebank.
Recording information: Blackbird Studios; The Castle Studios.
Photographer: Caleb Kuhl.
With heartland rock slowly being elbowed out of the mainstream during the course of the new millennium, such straight-ahead roots-rockers like Jonathan Singleton & the Grove are pushed toward the country. Twenty five years earlier, their simple, sturdy debut EP would have been vying for air time between John Cougar Mellencamp and Tom Petty, but in 2010, the group finds themselves on Toby Keith's imprint Show Dog, accentuating Singleton's Tennessee accent ever so slightly as the band mutes its rhythms and basks in the clean sheen of their Nashville production. Fortunately, these are the only commercial concessions Singleton & the Grove show on this appealing five-song EP; it's certainly bright enough to fit on country radio, but underneath that veneer, this is good, solid American roots music, as appealing in its sweetly lazy ballads as it is in its pumping anthems. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine