It’s easy to hear Marc Miner’s influences after hearing Last Heroes a single time.

Each of the album’s eleven cuts owes some degree of debt to outlaw country. He doesn’t go as far as directly mimicking the anthemic streak in progenitors such as Jennings, Nelson, or Hank Jr. – but there are other echoes. Fans of alt-country in recent years may hear some Hank Williams III in Miner’s work. I’m not saying he’s a direct influence, but that they share the same thrust.

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It cuts across the decades. “Sweet Revenge” checks off time-tested boxes while still displaying a distinctive character. Miner culls his tale from an unique collision of a love story with a criminal slant full of lyrical blood and thunder. His musical arrangement and attack for the song provide a crucial understated counterpoint to the graphic content of the words. There are affectations on his singing, but it isn’t ever heavy-handed.

“Girl Gone Bad” swings in a more neanderthal direction. Miner has very different aims with a song such as this, he’s content throttling listeners over the head with an obvious arrangement, but he does infuse the risqué lyrics with a lascivious bite that pushes the song right up to the edge. It’s a stylized number, obviously, but I do appreciate the ruthless rumble powering this track.

He turns back to more nuanced songwriting ambitions with the next few songs. “Nicki & Bob” is arguably the album’s best-realized story. It has a fully fleshed-out musical vision though, make no mistake, and the spot-on percussion pushes it forward at the right pace. It’s the lead guitar playing, however, that leaves the deepest mark on listeners, particularly with the playing during the song’s second half.

“Last Hero’s Gone” is a right, compact performance and one of the album’s most complete packages. Falling into cliché with these sorts of songs is an inherent risk, but there’s a consistent ring of experience lived rife throughout these cuts. Some listeners may hear a certain amount of posing with these songs, a measure of self-consciousness, but I hear his energy more than any sort of excessive earnestness.

He turns in a performance beyond his years with the song “Hero of Laredo”. I’m really taken with this song the way he invokes a palpable setting for his tale of an one-time street criminal’s rise to the top of the pyramid. Miner outfits the song with a tempo that keeps the song percolating from the start and gives impetus to his performance.

“Heavy Bones” is one of the album’s hardest hitters, especially thanks to its chorus. It’s an obvious choice for a single based on that aforementioned chorus alone. He flexes his bluesy muscles with this track and layers his singing with a thick gravel tone that squeezes every drop of soul from the song. “Home Ain’t No Place for Me” gets some of its melancholy glow from the elegant organ playing during the song’s second half. It’s a downcast mid-tempo amble that has a little bit of a nudge tucked into the performance.

Marc Miner writes and records something for everyone who loves Americana and alt-country. Last Heroes isn’t a lightweight release and Miner conveys a commanding personality with each of its eleven tracks. 

Kelly McKinnon