Staggs’ 7 years of work on album worth the time

Local artist Brett Staggs’ debut solo album has been seven years in the making — he recorded the songs in several states. The time shows, both in amount of material — 20 tracks — and in effort. Staggs has created a simple, folksy rock album. Brett Staggs

Brett Staggs

Self-Released

Rocks Like: Bill Deasy, Gin Blossoms

Grade: B

Local artist Brett Staggs’ debut solo album has been seven years in the making — he recorded the songs in several states. The time shows, both in amount of material — 20 tracks — and in effort. Staggs has created a simple, folksy rock album.

While it’s quite a lengthy CD, it’s definitely worth a listen, whether you’re a folk-rock lover or still dying for the ’90s to come back.

The album has a distinctly different sound from that of Staggs’ band, The Long Time Darlings. Whereas The Long Time Darlings savors of country, Brett Staggs’ solo work has more of an Americana rock, borderline ’90s, alternative sound to it.

The large number of songs demonstrate the vast range of musical genres in which Staggs feels comfortable. He swings from ’90s alt in “Bloomfield” to slow rock in songs like “Electric Heart.” He moves from Americana/Southern rock in “Brain Matter” to stripped down, soulful acoustic in “Hangover Blues.”

A standout track is “Places I Pass Through,” a folksy rock song featuring the intriguing addition of an organ played by local artist Ben Hardt. The variety of musical types, tempos and fidelities gives the album the potential to reach many different audiences.

Its length and style make the CD particularly good music for a road trip across, say, the Midwestern plains.