On their third album Forevermore, LA-based Grand Canyon manages to mine everything from early Springsteen and E Street band albums to Tom Petty for a remarkably satisfying listen that somehow manages to be both familiar and strikingly original at times. From the opening track, “Heart of Gold,” you can almost hear the crowd cheering on the arena-ready roots rocker, complete with jangly acoustic guitars and harmonica. But it’s Casey Shea’s raspy vocals and the backing chorus that really sell the song.
The band manages to carry that vibe across the entire record. In an era of downloaded singles and shuffled playlists, Grand Canyon is a band that focuses on albums, not singles. “As kids, albums meant something to us,” Shea said recently. “They still mean something to me; I’d rather listen to an album than a playlist. So, I mean, it may be against better judgment, but it was important to us to release these songs together.”