Pennywise frontman Jim Lindberg has been making inspiring, skate punk anthems since the 1990s. Musically, he’s drawn his influences from a few genres to create his melodic hardcore to the PMA influenced sounds of Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, and Dag Nasty mostly the usual suspects who often get mentioned from American punk rock culture.

Lyrically, Jim has taken inspiration from philosophers and used his lyrics to rally against political hypocrisy and corruption.   Pennywise are often described as heartfelt songs about self-reliance with a tonne of upbeat messages and individual betterment.

On his new solo acoustic debut, however, ‘Songs From The Elkhorn Trail’, Lindberg looks inwards, producing an album that is a personal reflection of life, a testament to family and friends, and a look at himself and where his life has taken him. Encompassing everything from family, friends to loneliness and alianation.  

I wouldn’t say its taken a while to get to this point but Lindburg recons the songs have been over 25 years in the making, the album is hislifes story. His father who passed away in 2018 of Alzheimer’s Disease is a huge inspiration for the record, having encouraged him in many aspects of his lifeand was fully supportive of him chasing his dreams in a punk rock band which is as cool aas it gets to be fair.

The album features David Hidalgo Jr. of Social Distortion on the drums, Joe Gittleman from The Mighty, Mighty BossToneS on bass, and Marc Orrell The Dropkick Murphy’s on guitar.

Having already released the first inspiring anthem “The Palm Of Your Hands” from the album, You get the feeling of an uplifting yet understated anthem. The downstrokes of the acoustic and the gang vocals are like taking a deep deep breath before a huge exhale. With PMA lyrics.

The album artwork is produced by Los Angeles local and musician, Bob Dob. The imagery in the artwork reflects the fact that many of the songs on the album were written at his father’s Palm Desert house near the Elkhorn Trail.  Bob’s painting feature punk rock and pop culture icons, video game characters, beach culture stereotypes, historical references, and Disney characters. Jim has said, “It’s a supreme honor that Bob agreed to do the artwork for the album and collaborate with me on it. He’s one of my favorite artists of all time.” It just adds to the back story and the warm fuzzy feeling of satisfaction when listening to the record.

I love the electric bass rumble on a predominantly acoustic driven record and add the stabs of brass like on the punchy ‘I Feel Like The Sun’. ‘Hello Again’ reminds me of The Hold Steady its pretty much wholesome pop songs written from the heart with that alternative twist. I guess its all about where the songs come from and whos driving the writing which dictates how they sound. Hell its not Ed Sheeran but nor is it Neil Young but it is acoustic pop music. Lindburg keeps it simple and reminises about his dad as the song develops to the piano solo which sounds like it was found in some smokey barroom.

As the album meanders through the melancholy of ‘Don’t Lay Me Down’ and its sad cello and stringed ensemble underpinning the acoustic strumming makes for a lovely song in a dark way. In Contras is the full blooded ‘Not One Of Them’ with its full band vibe. In a countrified moment the Dylan inspired harmonica wheeze of ‘Blood On Your Hands’ shows the variety on offer and the talent of Lindberg in his songwriting.

‘Good Enough’ is as close as you get to a bit of punk rock acoustic style. Sure its got that Bad Religion, Green Day SoCal attitude running through it and you keep waiting for the drums to kick in but – Spoiler Allert, they don’t.

One of the strongest tracks is the string laden ‘It’s Only’. Lindberg turns in a really good vocal – his emotions shine through to be fair as your hanging off his every word. In contrast then we get the Soft Cell drum machine beamed in from the 80s for ‘The Basement’ which has a demo feel to it as it races off at pace before some more frantic riffing on ‘On Fire’ that is relatable for many punk rockers everywhere.

The album eases itself out with ‘Long Way To Go’ with its fiddle solo and all in all a great place to sign the record off. It never outstays its welcome and there is enough variety to not get bored with the sparse nature of the tunes. A throughly enjoyable trip is ‘Songs From The Elkhorn Trail’ it will instantly connect with a lot of people who will relate to where Jim is coming from with his lyrics. Besides, Sometimes its cool to dance to a different beat so to speak, at least every now and then and this record is full of suprises and really good tunes. Top effort.

It’s out digitally on Epitaph from Nov 19^th and then on CD and vinyl next May, 2022.

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Author: Dom Daley