Flanfire Review

       I really like this record –B’s vocals are upfront and passionate, whether singing about his wife and his life “Not Going Back”, “Let it Out”, and more broader themes “When the Body Fails”…after a series of incarnations, B. Sterling found lead guitarists (and pedal steel player) Justin Crowell, bassist (and harmonica player) Doug Frazier, keyboard and vocalist Nicolette Manglos, and drummer Colin Wood to fill out the band.
     
     B. says he writes for the song, not the genre, and indeed the music here is varied—from soft rock to harder stuff to that country feel-“Why We Stay” is one of the most significant songs I have heard in YEARS…listen to this song late at night over a glass of wine with your sweetheart-and then spend an hour or two (or three or four) keeping the song alive in your own hearts…
    
     The title track is cut from another cloth-and here we find that selflessness of which freedom is made, “Smooth out the line in the sand, kiss all the wounds that you can, join with the lonely ‘cause you’re not the only one…time has come…so go out tonight and dance with a stranger…mend what you can…and give what you got till it’s gone.”  Just poor yourselves out and listen to B’s trumpet solo.  “Cash in your plans and go bold, live out the story of old…” B. urges us-and then we get the piano, followed by a piercing guitar solo over Frazier’s harmonica.
    
      I especially like the opening music to “Strike a Nerve,” the quiet organ sound … and B let’s us know that “the wrong hand on your heart can’t ruin what’s inside.”  “Let It Out” has this staccato energy that splays into a crescendo and a shout and then a very New Order kind of chorus.  In fact if I hear any precursors to this joyfully diverse set of songs, it would be the music of the 80’s .. lots of color, pyrodynamics too — but layered and rich and full.  “Let It Out” just keeps on coming — I just gotta see this one done live.  Total contrast — “Here’s to You,” a tender love song, a ballad, a lullabye almost … “I’m not here to win my side” — a marriage lesson in a song, with B. on cello and Alexis Ebbets on violin.  “So Far Down” opens with a classic guitar riff — and the organ tells you it is time to dance … but this song, too, is about coming to the end of ourselves and then what?  The album closes as it opens — with one of my favorites, the bouncy ”Not Going Back,” this time with Micah Miller on mandolin…

 "Being voted by your peers as the best, even when they are competing against you, pretty much says it all about the winner of the first Grand Playoff of the South Austin Idle Performing Songwriter Contest, multi-instrumentalist and singe-songwriter B. Sterling Archer."

-Steve Power, creator and host of South Austin Idle

Flanfare Review

"All in all, a very satisfying SXSW week -- including a special Deja Vu Friday  afternoon at Bull McCabe's Irish Pub with the duo of B. Sterling Archer Nicolette Manglos.  Special turned to phenomenal on the duo's last number, as they were joined by their bandmates on a brand-new song -- and by the legendary Beatle Bob!"

-Duggan Flanakin

El Paso Times 

 "Austin-based B. Sterling Band is the guitar, bass, keyboard and horn conglomeration brought to you by B. Sterling Archer...Archer's scratchy vocals are poignant, sweet and grainy like the first bites of a Bosc pear.  The B. Sterling Band is a little bit indie, a little bit singer-songwriter and whole lot of soul."

-Crystal Roberts 

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"His pluck is echoed in...the assured pop hooks of the B. Sterling Band."

-A.V. Club Austin