“If you listen to just one major-label debut by a dude this year, consider Elvie Shane’s. Stuffed to the gills with 15 songs — all of them co-written by the Kentucky newcomer — Backslider is a country-rock revelation. Shane sneers his way through guitar-rockers like ‘County Roads’ and has bravado to burn in ‘Love, Cold Beer, Cheap Smoke.’ He also shows off a tender side — we dare you not to tear up listening to the stepfather ballad ‘My Boy.’ In ‘Keep on Strummin’,’ he sings, ‘Nashville bound with my head in the clouds / they say, ‘With hope so high, boy, it’s a long way down.’’ But Shane is in no danger of falling here. Like Eric Church’s own superb debut Sinners Like Me, Backslider points to a career that we’re excited to watch unfold. —J.H.” [Rolling Stone]
