Supperbell Roundup is the pseudonym of one Brendon Massei, a Missouri kid who sounds like he stepped out of the Great Depression, picking a banjo and acoustic guitar. Massei started traveling the country by Greyhound bus at age 16, and by age 19, released his debut album. The songs are world-aware and savvy for such a young tunesmith. The aching echo of Woody Guthrie can be heard in Massei's vocals -- a throwback to the days of Leadbelly, Jimmie Rogers, freight trains, and dust bowls. If it were film, it would be grainy black and white. Lyrically, Supperbell Roundup isn't in the Woody Guthrie league; the songs are primarily first-person doses of careful self-reflection, which means that the stories they tell are less about hobos, cowboys, drifters, robbers, and migrants than they are about loves lost and won and restless wandering. At Station Four is proof positive that the American heartland continues to pump, despite the din of interstate and strip mall. ~ Jim Esch