Passenger Stanton

Precious Littles
Sometimes You Win (Bearwood Music)

You’ll never catch them on CMT or JR Country, but the Precious Littles can knock pretty much any bunch of new-country jarheads into a cocked Stetson.
The Sunshine Coast five-piece provides yet more confirmation that, sadly, the best roots music lives in the margins. Headed by songwriter, vocalist, and picker Joe Stanton, the Precious Littles keep things trad in the manner of John Hiatt, placing songcraft, crisp production (by Ray Fulber, with guitarist Simon Paradis), and precise musicianship ahead of the drawling gimmickry and Nashville mimicry of too many Canadian country artists (who usually come from Alberta).

In other words, the Precious Littles are proudly old school, ’70s-style, and not in the through-punk-darkly manner of the average alt-country outfit, either. This is straight-up stuff, from Stanton’s lived-in vocals to Tom Neville’s fiddle-playing to Jay Johnson’s simple yet graceful backbeat. Guitars get a little distorted in the slightly grittier “Sleeping Dogs”, but tracks like the swinging “Cheatin’ Train” wouldn’t sound out of place on a Commander Cody album, and “99 Days” might have dripped off Merle Haggard’s yellow-brown chin beard, back in the day.