★★★★★
Do bands go on the road so they can play music, or do they play music so they can go on the road? Especially at a time when touring has greater financial potential than releasing albums, there's something still powerful and romantic about piling everybody in a cramped van and driving long stretches between half-crowded shows...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2012-04-23
★★★★★
Are Trampled By Turtles showing signs of age? Or are they simply making the executive decision to pace themselves? Whatever the reason, it's a welcome change to the world of this Minnesota-based outfit to find them tempering the blistering speed of their stomping bluegrass on their sixth full-length. Don't get too nervous, TBT fans; there are still enough speedy tempos and glorious banjo/mandolin picking to go around here (the instrumental "Risk" is a particular delight)...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2012-04-19
★★★★★
Goto commentsLeave a commentShare Bluegrass Magic Trampled By Turtles have been bringing us excellent bluegrass since 2004. Even though the genre (as well as its related hyphens) has recently come into vogue, the Minnesota quintet has stuck to its guns for five studio albums. Their sixth and latest release, Stars and Satellites, is no exception. It's filled with energetic romps and fiddle-filled musings, the album is a solid addition to the band's repertoire...
- www.mxdwn.com
2012-04-19
★★★★★
It's been less than a year since this Minnesota sextet made their Canadian debut with Palomino. This is an even stronger effort, one that avoids the sometimes-frantic pace that marred that earlier album a little. Chief songwriter Dave Simonett has an expressive yet understated vocal style that suits such elegiac ballads as "High Water," "Beautiful" and "Widower's Heart...
- exclaim.ca
2012-04-12
★★★★★
Thirty Tigers/RED The Stars and Satellites track "Alone," with its flickering guitar, mandolin and banjo, gorgeous vocal harmonies and nature imagery, feels like a peaceful respite under the open sky before suddenly turning intense, with a burr-edged cello spurring on the other instruments. As Trampled By Turtles singer/guitarist Dave Simonett has suggested, the music breathes in part because it was recorded live during a weeklong stint at a log cabin in the woods outside of Duluth, Minn...
- www.relix.com
2012-04-11
★★★★★
Bluegrass music may be indigenous to the mountains of eastern Kentucky, but no one told that to Trampled by Turtles, a spectacularly named quintet from Duluth, Minnesota. On their fifth studio album, Palomino, the band proves that they can match acts like the Del McCoury Band and the Gibson Brothers, far better known in bluegrass circles, for sheer virtuosity...
- www.slantmagazine.com
2010-04-15
★★★★★
Tweet Trampled Indeed. Wild Animals by Trampled by Turtles seems like the soundtrack to the life of the average misfit. The desperate lyrics and gloomy melodies tell the story of a life of that comes up short but continues to hope for something better. The band's latest album contains a lot of peaks and valleys. The group sounds significantly less like a bluegrass band and more like a less-commercialized Mumford and Sons...
- www.mxdwn.com
2014-07-18
★★★★★
Wild Animals is Trampled By Turtles' seventh studio album, and it finds the group focusing on the quieter, folkier aspects of their sound. The production, courtesy of Low's Alan Sparhawk, is crisp and clear, and lead singer Dave Simonett's vocals show an impressive degree of vulnerability, something that fits nicely with the abundance of quiet songs on the album. Sadly, Simonett's songwriting leaves a lot to be desired here, and the bulk of Wild Animals ends up sounding utterly nondescript...
- www.popmatters.com
2014-07-14
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