National Grain

Yes, it's true: National Grain plays real country music. Not pop masquerading as alt-country or adult contemporary pretending to be Nashville country, but honest-to-goodness, tears-in-your-beer country music.

National Grain is influenced by legends like Johnny Cash and Lefty Frizzell. But at the same time, the band doesn't want to be a revival act, so it infuses its classical numbers with energy and spirit, a hallmark of its restless, genre-spanning musical tastes and record collections.

National Grain's self-titled debut swings and burns, from the blurry disorientation of "City Lights" to the brokenhearted "Whiskey, Wine, and Beer," with poetic, true-life confessions that belie the music's frequently uptempo beat. - Creative Loafing

Over the past decade, dozens of budding alt-country groups have cut their teeth at the Star Bar, the Earl and other Pabst-pouring Atlanta honk- tonks. Yet while a token few like the Drive-By Truckers have gained national acclaim, the bulk of the local talent has coexisted peacefully under the radar. One such act is National Grain, a five-piece led by singer-songwriters Ben McAllister and Jeff Moore, which may not stay under that radar for much longer.

The band’s self-titled debut of easy-on-the-ears Americana simultaneously uplifts and laments, filled with homespun tales of long-distance love, long train rides and barstool confessionals. The lonesome AM-radio vibe of traditional country rubs elbows with the galloping rhythms and Telecaster twang of Old 97's and, at times, the tattered vitriol of Uncle Tupelo.

Cuts like “City Lights,” “Better Times,” “High Country Twilight” and “Why Don’t You Ever Call Me On the Phone?” get better with each spin, buoyed by honeyed harmonies and toe-tapping choruses that should make even Southern transplants sing along with an exaggerated drawl. Whining pedal steel and clucking banjo give the songs a broken-in feel, thankfully preserved by light-handed production. With nary a throwaway in these dozen tracks, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more accessible debut in the local bin. - Sunday Paper

This local quintet's 2004 five-song demo twanged with authority. Now they step it up a notch with a self-titled full-length debut and a batch of songs to justify those Gram Parsons and Uncle Tupelo comparisons. "Some Kind of Devil" convincingly cranks up the rock, but it's those deeply country tunes draped in pedal steel ("Pretty Women Won't Give Me the Time of Day" and "Whiskey, Wine & Beer") that keep the tears and beers flowing.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"These sweeping, echo-y, steel guitar-blanketed slow dance tunes and country-rock stompers come highly recommended for fans of Gram Parsons and Commander Cody." - Paste

"One of Atlanta's best Americana-flavored outfits." - AJC

"Twangs with authority and shares the toe-tapping shuffle and melodic sensibility of the texas quartet Old 97's, and their pedal-steel swathed songs sound like lost country classics." - AJC

"National Grain offers a full, undiluted serving of its patented pure-grain elixir. The potent potable includes equal parts George Jones, Uncle Tupelo and the prerequisite Replacements flavoring for a fizzy aftertaste." - Creative Loafing

"Highly-melodic alt-country band from Atlanta. The group's self-titled, cleanly recorded five-song EP is as easy-going as a rattly Uncle Tupelo cassette on a humid morning." - Flagpole Magazine

"National Grain serves as a cross-section for Atlanta's americana music scene. Their sound falls into a Son Volt / Old 97's territory." - Creative Loafing