Sooner or Later: A Compilation

This summary of the studio side of Knoxville, Tennessee's V-Roys, released on frontman Scott Miller's label, is a little late since it appears 11 years after the band's farewell album. That disc was a live set, none of whose tracks are represented in this 18-cut, 55-minute collection of the group's recorded highlights with a handful of rarities. Assuming that the two original albums this recap's songs are culled from are now out of print, it's a solid selection that features nine tunes from the V-Roys' 1996 debut and another four from their 1998 follow-up, both produced and championed by the Twangtrust collective of Steve Earle and Ray Kennedy. If you're a roots/country rock fan and don't own those, this is a perfectly acceptable substitute with clean remastering and some nifty, previously unreleased covers of Buffalo Springfield's "Burned" and Tom T. Hall's "How I Got to Memphis," the latter of which seems to be inspired by Buddy Miller's exemplary take on the song from his 1995 debut