After celebrating its release Jan. 29 at The Boro, Southern roots rockers, The Only Sons, dropped its LP called American Stranger, “American” being the operative word as the recording channels all the hard roots rockers that have shaped the genre over the past 50 years.

Honestly, the 12-track work is just more of what the Nashville area already has plenty of. That said, The Only Sons work their guitars and drive their melodies with enough enthusiasm and genuine understanding of the sound to make it work, and the wired, electric energy of the instrumentation has an interesting contrast with the thick, dusky Jakob Dylan-like vocals of frontman Kent Goolsby (although sometimes they were so muffled, it was difficult to understand the lyrics).

Though not every track sticks out on the record, what’s good is really good. A quiet drum brush backs a pretty banjo pluck in “Just My Luck,” and a drilling riff pulls in the listener in “Gone Down Swinging,” which sounds like the grittier stuff of Tom Petty. The album is not without strong hooks, either—like in the opener “Cutting Corners” or “More Like You”—but it’s one better suited for live performance in a grungy dive bar than on a record player.