Ingram Hill
June’s Picture Show
Traveler Records

Sounding like Athens but shooting out of Elvis-country, Ingram Hill’s 12-track release June’s Picture Show - produced by Rick Beato - is up for consumption. Not extraordinary but worth a listen, Ingram Hill is as easy and packaged as the Hooties and Edwin McCains yet maintains the fresh-off-the-college-scene appeal.

Ingram Hill is Justin Moore (guitar/vocal), Matt Chambless (drums), Shea Sowell (bass/vocals), Phil Bogard (guitars), and the quartet has garnered notable momentum in Memphis and on tour. Puns aside, the group is in their bandwagon-jumping era, and will continue appealing to 20-somethings with predictable guitar-driven rifts that are nonetheless pleasing for airplay. Full of songs about love and heartache, yearning and finding a place in life, June’s Picture Show contains songs with hooks like 'Almost Perfect' and songs with heart like 'On My Way.' Well-produced Southern rock meets the everyday struggles of the white male university student, your online CD confirmation would say: “If you like this CD, you’ll also like….Memory Dean, Matchbox 20, and Train.” In what sounds like mainstream pop/rock, Ingram Hill has an above average chance of sales success, but they’ll have to work to display the edge that makes them different from all the rest.

Although I wouldn’t take a Presleyesque pilgrimage to Memphis just to see Ingram Hill, I’d catch them while in town, and so should you. I would guess that a young band with college show roots can grab a live crowd and send them to the CD table on the way out.

Ali Bracken