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From Good Homes: Time and the River
Matt Inman on September 2, 2019
In early August, From Good Homes played a special album-release show at the Waterloo Concert Field in Stanhope, N.J., returning to the same location where the Jersey-bred band performed what was then their final set back in the summer of 1999. Appropriately, Time and the River , the new record that From Good Homes celebrated at that show, is the band’s first studio effort since that same year they initially broke up. And, it also marks a return to that era, showcasing FGH’s signature brand of “Hick-Pop” Americana, led by the solid songwriting and high, earthy vocals of Todd Sheaffer (who is now probably best known for his work with the other New Jersey group he founded, Railroad Earth). Along with the singer-songwriter, From Good Homes features bassist Brady Rymer, drummer Patrick Fitzsimmons, saxophonist Dan Myers and multi-instrumentalist Jamie Coan, all of whom pick up with Time and the River where they left off in the late-’90s, without sounding like a throwback nostalgia offering. Though FGH reunited in 2009 and have played here and there in the years since, the new LP finally adds an injection of new tunes into the group’s catalog for longtime fans to enjoy. The band released a preview EP of the same name in December 2018, introducing three of the album’s tracks: “Tallahassee Trouble,” a rollicking look back on a past relationship with shimmering pedal-steel guitar; “Sweet Spot,” a playful, horn-fueled jam; and “Lady Liberty,” a pensive, album-closing ode to immigrants and the American dream. The full-length version of Time and the River adds eight additional compositions that use the group’s still-vibrant cohesion to ruminate on a variety of subjects, including the relentless passage of time (the reflective title track), the frustrating division of politics in the country (“I Throw Up My Hands”) and taking control of one’s life (“Don’t Put Off ‘Til Tomorrow”). The members of From Good Homes still have plenty to say, and their dedicated fanbase is surely glad that the band also still has the willingness to say it.
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From Good Homes: Open Up the Sky AllMusic Review by JT Griffith
From Good Homes made its major-label debut with 1994's Open up the Sky. As good as their self-released debut, Hick-Pop Comin' at Ya!, was, Open up the Sky is an even better produced roots rock album. It is amazing that RCA let a band with as much potential as From Good Homes record their debut without any of the good songs from their indie debut. It turns out it was for a good reason; all of the songs on this CD shine. "If the Wind Blows" and "Radio On" are two songs that continue the band's tradition of well-written pop songs that can be opened out into longer jams in concert. Fans of Boyd Tinsley from the Dave Matthews Band will especially like Open up the Sky because the fiddle is tastefully recorded and adds a lot to the songs in this set. If there was a world where jam bands got respect and radio airplay then From Good Homes' members would be stars and "Let Go" would have been the Prom Song of the Year in 1995. Open up the Sky is a very good record, and was shamefully overlooked by the record buyers. Make up for it now that you can pick up copies for three dollars a pop. And buy some for you friends.
With their pastoral, Northwest Jersey-churned improvisational roots rock, From Good Homes always have been one of the proudest points on the Garden State Music Map. And home they are coming from New Hampshire and South Carolina to reunite once again at Waterloo Village in Hackettstown. This time, it’s for an Aug. 3 record release party for a great new album, “Time and the River.”
The rollicking yet personal title track kicks off the meaty 11-song comeback with a bittersweet tale of love, longing and loss. The spirited fun of “Throw Up My Hands” comes next as a country-gospel romp with a frustrated political bend that both weeps and has hope for the future. In reference to making a difference, I love the line, “All you gotta do is have a heart,” which also relates to the epic closing track, “Lady Liberty.”
One of the things that From Good Homes are best at is illustrating rural life with a charming vibrancy few other rock or country acts can rival. The opening of “Lady Liberty” is a great example that sets the scene for a powerful statement about immigration. Main singer-songwriter Todd Sheaffer compares the hope of the American Dream that the Statue of Liberty inspired in immigrants who came through Ellis Island to the nightmare of those being detained, neglected and abused in U.S. concentration camps on the Mexican border. Expressing history and empathy from the standpoint that all Americans are immigrants or descendants of them, “Lady Liberty” may be the Makin Waves Song of the Year. It certainly is the one to beat.
This lyric breaks my heart, and if it doesn’t at least touch yours, you are inhumane: “I’ve come from a country torn with terror and strife, and I walk my children by the hand for a brand new life. And what’s good for me is probably true for you: for a better life for your children, anything you can do. Now I’m held at the border of the Land of the Free. I wait my days in an iron cage under lock and key.”