MAGNET Exclusive: The Star Room Boys Go Track By Track On "Why Do Lonely Men And Women Want To Break Each Other's Hearts?"

MAGNET Exclusive: The Star Room Boys Go Track By Track On "Why Do Lonely Men And Women Want To Break Each Other's Hearts?"

The Star Room Boys weren’t raised on country music, coming to it as young adults in Athens, Ga., via legends like Lefty Frizzell, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. By the time they released Why Do Lonely Men And Women Want To Break Each Other’s Hearts?, primary songwriter Dave Marr, co-founding guitarist Doug Hollingsworth and the rest of the group had locked into a distinctive hardscrabble C&W groove. With one of the longest album titles in recent memory, the Star Room Boys’ impressive 1999 debut is populated by busted relationships, bar binges and long drives in vehicles of all conditions and axle sizes. More often than not, the ear is drawn to the easy interplay between Hollingsworth, second guitarist Philip McArdle and pedal-steel player John Neff, with drummer Bob Fernandez and bassist John McMahon holding it down with session-caliber subtlety.