Thielen's debut on Philville Records is a perfect representation of his varied tastes and styles -- from songs like the lead single (streaming now) Lazy South Dakota that evoke feelings of listening to a 1920's jazz ensemble performing on the deck of a stern-wheeler in the Mississippi, to psychedelic mental musings about building a kit-car from a Fiero chassis in Fiero -- Thielen's songwriting is hard to pin down.  Much like his omnivorous musical projects in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin, Joe can easily jump from stringband & jugband sounds all the way into early 60's garage rock without missing a beat. Tracks like the opening overture of the album,  Driving Down Dusty Roads, sound akin to an instrumental anthem penned by Robbie Robertson but with a fuzzed out guitar thrown in along side mandolin.  Joe's got gospel tunes on this record, self-effacing songs about the day to day grind of fatherhood, tongue in cheek tunes about having Chat GPT write your obituary, and Golden Shores, which is a beautiful and heartfelt farewell to an old friend who's passing inspired the cover art as well as the song. 

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Joe's backed up by the Phiville session players (Matthew R. Sayles, Jerod Kaszynski, & Ben Nelson) on the album, as well as Lucas Fischer on baritone guitar, and Olaf Lind on fiddle.