Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is when you start apologising for everything that ever was, even the good things in life, the shared moments of joy, passion and adventure, that you realise it was all that you could do to keep the song alive, to let it be heard with sincerity and damn those with grace who encourage you to feel inferior and flawed; for those that made you feel Sorry For The Good Times.

Never apologise for loving something decent, worthy of your time or even just something that picked at your curiosity’s conscious, to say sorry for having loved is the downward spiral to self denial, whether for good or ill, saying sorry is not the hardest word in this day and age, telling an artist that they have captured your heart arguably is.

It is an emotion that is fitting when it comes to the Red Pine Timber Company, an offering of thanks that is completely deserved, that makes this forest of versatile musicians of the Americana dream such a positive institution.

This second album by the band seems to have completely ignored the hard and fast rule that it must have been born out of immense suffering and overwhelming hardship, not just ignored the rule but set it on fire, put it in a brown envelope and posted it directly to anyone with a problem or who would hold a grudge to a series of songs played out in tremendous time and obviously fulfilling enjoyment.

In songs such as the opener If You Want To, Tracks in the Snow, The Same Kind of Pretty, Bar Stool, Look at the Moonlight and Get Right With You, what comes across is recognition, that fulfilment, the execution of endeavour and belief is there, it stares down the barrel of the gun owned by those who demand such apologies and turns the bullet aimed instead to a dove of peace; of reconciliation and upbeat tempo.

Sorry For The Good Times, only if they were never meant, if they were a tease to lull and pull you into something better than you were feeling before; Red Pine Timber Company have that effect to make everything better.

Ian D. Hall