The County Wide Fame – The First Six (EP Review)

The County-Wide Fame, a trio of three brothers that started this act together last year, released an EP of their first six songs, aptly titled The First Six. This album is pure country without any of the generic motifs we often find in the industry. Musically, it’s mostly acoustic guitar passages with Kevin and Greg Winter complimenting each other, along with Josh Winter’s bass playing. When it comes to country music, I always review it under immense scrutiny, due to the historical and musical nature of the genre, so I’m interested to see what the Winter brothers have brought forth.

The EP kicks off with “The Road”, which gives us a clear indication of how the EP is going to sound from here on out. As I mentioned in the intro, Kevin and Greg’s guitar playing goes very well together and creates a vintage country atmosphere. I also really like the melody and vocals, which are fitting for the genre. That said, I thought Josh’s bass tone was off-putting, being too loud and upfront.

Speaking of the vocals, they were okay overall, with some hits and misses. “April’s Song” was definitely a miss, with the boring melody not doing the trio any favors. “Wondering Through” has a similar issue, only being saved by better acoustic passages.

To build upon the guitar playing, we have “When The Lightning Came”, my favorite song off the EP. It’s a gentle tune with a soothing melody, further complimented by the brothers’ musicianship. The only time we see any electric guitar playing is on the song “For Now”. While I didn’t like it, due to an irritating chorus, I thought the addition of the guitar solo added some much-needed flavor.

The last track, “Not Just Somebody”, is just a sappy love song that left me uninterested within the first minute.

Here are my ratings for each song on a scale of 0-4:

1. The Road – 3
2. April’s Song – 1
3. For Now – 1
4. When the Lightning Came – 4
5. Wandering Through – 2
6. Not Just Somebody – 2

SCORE/Mediocre: There were definitely hints of talent throughout this EP, just not enough for it to materialize into a formidable and interesting project. With the project being as short as it is, there really isn’t much more to say. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Winter brothers cooked up something great with enough time, brainstorming, and practice. After all, this EP is still more interesting than most of what the country music world has to offer.

[We rank albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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