Mars, Arizona. Â Wind and sun the primary elements of nature, the tumbleweeds rolling through town, red sand whipped into dust devils with nothing but cactus to impede their motion. Â Like so many small towns in America, the burden of providing for its citizens outweighing a rapidly diminishing tax base until there’s no choice but to sell. Â Take what little dignity is left, polish it up for the auctioneer, and quietly leave out the back door to start life anew. Â That story, fact or fable doesn’t matter, is the inspiration for New American Farmers nee Mars, Arizona.
Brand New Day, the upcoming debut release under the band’s new nom de plume, weaves tales of lives adrift in a new reality, all set atop a superb Americana soundtrack. Â Good And Sober, perhaps my favorite NAF song of the album, weighs in on the revelation for why it’s finally time to find a cure, “when I was a boy each day was a gift, and I want to unwrap them again.” Â Everywhere, the competing nomination to Good And Sober, is a lighthearted, jangly romp featuring Gene Parsons on banjo that clearly invokes his Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers heritage.
Philosophically, the album contains a couple of bookends: Hypocrite, a feel guilty, NOT, anecdote about the 1 percent, while How Do We Do It covers the less upbeat choices of the 99 percent, boosted in its loneliness by the sound of the single piano of Paul Knowles, half of the New American Famers duo, run through the echo machine. Â I also have to point out there are several sweet, sweet injections of trumpet from Nicole Storto, the other half of the duo, notably Don’t Wait For Me Here and Faking the Divine.
 I have to close my review of this extremely well-crafted project with a shout-out for the cover of the 70’s Electric Light Orchestra hit, Can’t Get It Out Of My Head.  Although I always liked the original, it was clearly a victim of the production excesses realized with the recent introduction of 24 track recorders.  Knowles strips it to its elements and then, with the assistance of the Real Vocal String Quartet, reconstructs it to outshine the original.  It’s yet one more example of how New American Farmers are embracing many of the early influences of Americana, and then rearranging them to build the new musical life of the inhabitants of Mars, Arizona.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.