To record Amen Corner, the band’s latest release, Railroad Earth retired to the comfortable confines of singer/songwriter Todd Sheaffer’s 300 year old farmhouse in rural New Jersey. The familiarities of home certainly seeped into the band’s sessions; Amen Corner will go down as one of the most important Americana albums of this young century. Driving the record are Sheaffer’s songwriting abilities—he’s could easily be described as one of the most wittiest down home songwriters of this generation—and the efforts of multi-instrumentalist Andy Goessling. While there are no slouches in the Railroad Earth line up, Goessling’s musical flexibility—moving from guitar, dobro, banjo, saxophone, and flute on the record—add an unmatched diversity to the band’s experimental acoustic rock. With Amen Corner, Railroad Earth is poised to become, much The Band or Neil Young, the band that defines roots music for a generation.
