Virgil Shaw's twangy, reedy voice gives life to characters who are much like the box factory workers, apple farmers and FFA members I knew growing up; you are sure, listening to Quad Cities, that the yards of his memory are filled with rusted cars and broken refrigerators. He sings about "amber waves of golden decay", a man who likes "building dollhouses and burning them down" and a Rottweiler who grows up too quickly. The songs are moody character sketches, singer-songwriter country-rock that reminds me of Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Formerly with Dieselhed, Shaw broke off to follow a musical direction of his own -- seemingly down a winding dirt road. All of the tracks feature his voice and a heavily-reverbed guitar; for musical interest and mood-setting he throws in curious instruments like a saw and Chinese trumpet. "Twisted Layer" is a lot of guitar strumming with layers of feedback, reverb and vibraphone to color the narrator's tale of leaving a lover. In "Carving Soap" Shaw compares the joys of soap-carving to eating finger food -- a comparison that makes me wonder if he's loved carving himself. The song's style is stripped bare, completely independent of the rest of the album.

"Volvo" is a song you have to sing along with while running errands in the car, if just for the cheerful chorus that includes the memorable phrase "primer-grey Volvo". As the album draws to a close with "For Your Precious Love", a melancholy crooner devoted to -- what else -- everlasting love, the listener can feel that she's been on a journey to a very isolated landscape. Shaw brings us into this world with his melodies and makes you want to stay. If you like country-rock, you should own it; if you don't, Quad Cities is a good way to get pulled into the genre.