''Pinmonkey'' is the second studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

band Pinmonkey. It was issued in late 2002 on

BNA Records BNA Records, formerly known as BNA Entertainment, was a label group that shared ties with Arista Nashville and RCA Nashville from parent company Sony Music Nashville, which itself is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment. Based in Nashville, ...

. The album contains two singles: " Barbed Wire and Roses" and a cover of

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper ( ; born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing, and for her powerful four-octave vocal range;Jerome, ...

's "

I Drove All Night "I Drove All Night" is a song written and composed by American songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and originally intended for Roy Orbison. Orbison recorded the song in 1987, the year before his death, but his version was not released until ...

", both of which charted on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

. It was co-produced by

Paul Worley Paul Worley (born February 16, 1950 in Nashville) is an American record producer and session guitarist, known primarily for his work in country music. Formerly a vice president at Sony BMG, he later joined the staff of Warner Bros. Records' Nashv ...

and Mike Poole. The album received favorable critical reception for the band's musicianship.

History

Before signing with

in 2002, Pinmonkey self-released an album titled ''Speak No Evil''. Record executive

Joe Galante Joe Galante (born December 18, 1949, New York City, NY) is an American music industry executive. He is noted for his role in developing the careers of Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Brad Paisley, Martina McBr ...

allowed the band to release this project while signing to BNA Records, as he thought doing so would allow them to have a project to promote while on tour. ''Pinmonkey'' contains two singles. First was "Barbed Wire and Roses", which peaked at number 25 on ''

in 2002. The only other single was a cover of

's "

", which the band took to number 36 on the same chart. According to an interview with

Country Standard Time ''Country Standard Time'' is a website dedicated to country music and related genres including Americana, bluegrass and rockabilly. It provides news and musical reviews pertaining to the genre. It was established in 1993 by Jeffrey B. Remz as ...

, the decision to cover "I Drove All Night" was recommended by group member Chad Jeffers's girlfriend, who was a fan of Lauper's music. The band intentionally based their cover off an acoustic rendition sung by Jeffers, so as not to let Lauper's original version influence their own. Additionally, lead singer Michael Reynolds sought out a cover of

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...

's "Falling Out of Love with Me" because he wanted to include a Parton cover on the album; however, he did not think the song was suitable for Pinmonkey until Chad began singing it in conversation. The Parton cover also includes her on backing vocals. Additional cover songs on the album include

Sugar Ray Sugar Ray is an American rock band formed in Newport Beach, California, in 1986. Originally playing heavier funk metal and nu metal style music, the band achieved mainstream popularity in 1997 with their more pop-influenced single " Fly". Th ...

's "

Fly Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

Gwil Owen Gwilym "Gwil" Emyr Owen III (born July 24, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter of Welsh heritage. Career Gwil was born in Syracuse, New York, grew up in Granville, Ohio, and attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, but did not grad ...

's "Augusta", and the Staples Singers's "Stay with Us".

Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price of ''

'' found influences of bluegrass,

swamp rock Swamp rock is a genre of rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in ...

, and

country rock Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...

in their sound. She also praised Michael Reynolds's lead vocals as "a clear, high tenor adept at up-tempos and stunning on...ballads". Jack Leaver of ''

The Grand Rapids Press ''The Grand Rapids Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 20 ...

'' rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising the cover songs in particular, as well as the use of

Dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

and vocal harmony.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

writer Erik Hage praised the "tight musicianship" and Reynolds's lead vocals, giving the album four out of five stars.

Track listing

Personnel

Pinmonkey

*Chad Jeffers –

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of pla ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

, acoustic guitar, background vocals *Michael Jeffers – bass guitar *Michael Reynolds – lead vocals, acoustic guitar *Rick Schell – drums, percussion, acoustic guitar, background vocals

Additional musicians

*Bob Britt – acoustic guitar, electric guitar,

12-string electric guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in ...

Al Perkins Al Perkins (born January 18, 1944) is an American guitarist known primarily for his steel guitar work. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential Dobro player" and began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in 2 ...

— electric guitar on "The Longest Road" *

Ricky Skaggs Rickie Lee Skaggs (born July 18, 1954), known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, ma ...

–

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

on "Augusta" *

Bryan Sutton James Bryan Sutton (born 1973) is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs. Biography Early career Sutton's gr ...

– acoustic guitar and mandolin on "Slow Train Comin'" *Michael Webb –

Hammond B-3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created from rotat ...

, electric piano,

Farfisa Farfisa () is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professional and VIP ranges, and later, a se ...

organ,

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

*Paul Worley — acoustic guitar, electric guitar * Rusty Young – banjo and mandolin on "Slow Train Comin'"

Technical

* Carlos Grier - digital editing * Erik Hellerman - recording * Andrew Mendelson - digital editing * Mike Poole - production, recording, mixing * Denny Purcell - mastering * Clarke Schleicher - recording * Paul Worley - production

Chart performance

References

{{Authority control 2002 albums BNA Records albums Pinmonkey albums Albums produced by Paul Worley