Collin Herring- Past Life Crashing Review

Artist: Collin Herring
Title: Past Life Crashing
Website: http://www.myspace.com/collinherring
Style: Roots/Alt. Rock/ Alt. Country
Rating: 8.9 out of 10
By C.W. Ross

 

Past Life Crashing is the third release from Collin. Since his last release, The Other Side of Kindness, in 2005 Collin's life has been like a whirlwind of turmoil. He had to go into rehab twice along with getting married and divorced.

 

In the songs found on this release Collin bares his soul for you to see. Even though the song lyrics deal with strife, trouble and painful times they also hold out the hope of pulling yourself out of your bad situations and being triumphant over them.

 

In his press material Collins says about the songs, " I was just doing what I love to do, having no other choice than to get what is inside of me out."

 

The songs are filled with Collin's signature roots alt. rock meets Texas country. The release does take a side trip on the last two tracks with more of an experimental side to those songs.

 

Past Life Crashing took over 2 and a half years and included many song rewrites and production changes. You'll also find multiple artist that helped out including, Ken Coomer (former drummer for Wilco), Kathleen Edwards, Audley Freed (Black Crowes, Cry of Love), and Andrew Duplantis (Meat Puppets). His father Ben Roi Herring who played pedal steel and keyboards along with contributing some vocals also joined Collin.

 

Collin made sure that the songs weren't overworked though. He said that, "I wanted them to sound frayed enough that people heard them and felt the way I did when I wrote them."

 

Collin Herring already has a growing reputation as both a singer songwriter and a leader in the alt. rock music world and Past Life Crashing will only help to continue that growth. This release is ripe with soul baring songs that work on so many different levels.