Chesapeake’s The Last Bison (formerly just ‘Bison’) got major notice thanks to their song “Switzerland” off of Quill, some listener-friendly folk-rock that sounds enough like Mumford & Sons (QRO live review) to be a hot commodity, while not being a retread or repeat. The Virginia group was snapped up by major label Universal Republic, released “Switzerland” and some reworked Quill songs on Inheritance EP (QRO review), and now come out with the Inheritance LP, which shows they have more than “Switzerland”, especially in the fiddle department.
After the minute-long title track instrumental (which interestingly wasn’t on the EP of the same name), Inheritance delivers Quill’s title track and then three of the four from the EP – “Switzerland”, “Dark Am I”, and “River Rhine”. Yet in some ways those already-released songs (and thus that EP) aren’t a direct introduction for the full-length, as from there on The Last Bison dip into the fiddle-strings, such as on “Take All the Time”, Civil War-esque “Autumn Snow”, and somewhat overwrought closer “Sandstone”. The old-timey moves are authentic, but not quite as accessible – though the song about a runaway father in the nineteenth century “Watches and Chains” is memorable.
Listeners who were hoping for a full album of “Switzerland”s will be disappointed with Inheritance, but they were never going to get that. Instead, listeners who were expecting a Mumford redux will be surprised and impressed by The Last Bison’s old-timey ability.
The Last Bison – Switzerland
