Introducing... The Pink Stones
The Athens band looks to the past on their debut on Normaltown Records
When I wrote Friday’s column about My Morning Jacket’s anniversary for At Dawn, I was left wanting an 00s alt-country revival.
Luckily, The Pink Stones are here with their debut Introducing… The Pink Stones, a southern-fried cosmic country journey through the record stacks.
Started by former punker Hunter Pinkston in Athens, The Pink Stones came together as students in the music business program at the University of Georgia.
Pinkston grew up with country influences from his mother but leaned into his father's rocking ways, a former drummer who opened local shows for The Allman Brothers. After coming across “Brass Buttons” by Gram Parsons, Pinkston fell in love with cosmic country and changed his path.
On Introducing…, the band wears Gram proudly on their sleeves, flowing in and out of different Parsons eras, from his short time in The Byrds to looseness of The Flying Burrito Brothers and his legendary solo work before dying at the young age of 26 at the Joshua Tree Inn. The influence is most notable on twangy rockers like “Barroom Blues,” “Love Me Hardly,” and “Miss Wind Turbine”.
The Pink Stones aren’t completely cemented in the seventies, though, and on tracks like the opener “Blueberry Dream” and “Put Me On,” their sound is that of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco on A.M. and Being There.
Besides Pinkston, the group is driven by the Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel sounds from pianist Will Anderson and the twinkling Telecaster belonging to Logan Brammer. If the pedal steel work sounds familiar, it’s because the group also includes John Neff, a founding member of Drive-By Truckers and an Athens music scene staple. After sitting in for some live shows with The Pink Stones, Neff decided to become a full-time member and is a force on the dive bar numbers while adding atmosphere to the ballads.
Not everything fires on all cylinders, like “Shiny Bone,” a song that slows things down early on and would have worked better on the b-side, but by the time everything comes together on the exquisite closer “Dream so Sweetly,” you’ll be wanting to hear a follow-up record.
Introducing… The Pink Stones is available via Normaltown Records.