This third outing from the Urban Hillbilly Quartet represents American music at its best. It is certainly in the vein of old-school country/hillbilly music, but it also has traces of polka. (I love that accordion!) To me, the interesting thing about listening to this album is hearing country music without the Southern vocal twang. This didn't really occur to me until I started singing along and noticed that they didn't have the same twang that I, born and raised in Oklahoma, have.

The first song on this album is "Living in the City." It's a foot-stomping doozy of a song that really throws down their idea of what it means to be an urban hillbilly in these lyrics:

Living in the city,
Ain't gonna be-no-
White flight
Red stoplight
Let's-go-shopping-at-the-mall-tonight-
Suburbanite.
The neat thing is that they actually mix in a snippet of the theme song of Masterpiece Theatre right in the middle of this song. I don't think anyone else would have thought of this, and it's yet another example of the creativity (and downright wackiness!) of this band.

The next song, "Fields at Night," is a great love song that's cute, without being sappy or sentimental. I think it expresses better the feelings of a guy who is successful in love than most love songs, although it does have a sort of sad feel at the end, as any good country song should.

If any song sums up the theme of this album, it is "Because We Weep." Its chorus line of "Because we weep, we will laugh again; Because we weep, we will laugh once more" says it all. True joy is only possible when you've gone through heartbreak and have come to the other side. This bittersweet truth is a great comfort when living in this dark and fallen world.

There's a lot of other good songs on this album, but just to mention a few more: "Dead Letter Office" (Listen for their use of the accordion. It sounds almost like polka or tejano, but they pull it into the mix while staying true to their own sound); "Prom King" (Some of the nice features of the song are the banjo and the strange drum that you hear intermittently in the background. I have heard that this is one of their most frequently requested songs at their shows); and "Grandma" (great use of a sitar to create a very eerie sound in this song).

This album's weak points are in the later part with their slower songs, yet even these imperfections have an endearing charm to them that comes from being authentically real. Overall, St. Paul Town is a great album to listen to when you're sad and lonesome, and it's a great album to listen to when you're on top of the world. Just pop it into your CD player and sing (or even dance) along, and you'll better feel better either way. I recommend this album for fans of Havalina Rail Co, country music listeners, and anyone else who has an open mind.