Kelsey Street Records

On its fifth studio album, Backyard Tire Fire – frontman, songwriter /guitarist Ed Anderson‘s band – reports on an experience the members of the band know a thing or two about: the unglamorous, relationship-trying lifestyle of burning the candle at both ends on the road. The scrappy twang-and-roll trio – rounded out by bassist Matt Anderson and drummer Tim Kramp – is actually fairly sanguine and insightful about the whole thing (case in point: the meaty, buoyant, oddly synth-touched title track and the alt-country anthem-in-the-making “A Thousand Gigs Ago” ). There are a few clunky lyrics here and there, but, with all the talk of aging, scrimping and broken down vehicles, the band has no shortage of energy – more, even, than on last year’s The Places We Lived.