It's been said that “there’s no place like home;” a sentiment that really rang true with Railroad Earth during the recording of their new album, Amen Corner. Compared to the sterility and stress of a commercial studio—where the cost-clock ticks and the pressure of performing under a budget looms large—recording at home is like heaven on earth… and Amen Corner captures that feeling from beginning to end.

“This recording experience was a dream,” says Todd Sheaffer, singer, songwriter and the musical fulcrum of Railroad Earth. “It was the kind of thing I’ve been waiting to do my entire life.”

Amen Corner (June 10, 2008 / SCI Fidelity Records), the band’s fourth studio album, was written and recorded at Sheaffer’s 300-year old farmhouse in the rural New Jersey countryside. In November 2007, the band moved their gear in and started doing what they do best: making music. “We thought, ‘Let’s get in there and see what happens,’” says Railroad Earth bassist, Johnny Grubb.

Amen Corner may be the early creative pinnacle of a gifted young band, and has all the makings of an Americana classic. It’s a collection of crisp and crafted Americana and acoustic roots sides that resonate in all the right places. Each of the tunes breathe both on and between the notes. They hit you immediately, but then linger like a good buzz.

“Normally,” Sheaffer explains, “you come home after six weeks on the road and jump into the studio, all frazzled because you don’t have much left in the tank. This time I feel like we’ve invited our friends into our living room and that’s basically how we recorded it. We wanted for years to try working this way and I’m so happy we were finally able to do it.”

Amen Corner is, literally and figuratively, the rustic sound of a band happy to be at home. There’s lots of spontaneous creativity accompanied by a modicum of tinkering. Overseen by the band’s longtime live engineer, Mike Partridge, who was careful to ensure that everything the band played was caught properly on tape, Amen Corner was produced by the band with the express intent of capturing the six of them simply having fun playing together.

“The musical part was almost effortless,” says Grubb. “It was the easiest labor of any record that I’ve ever been around for with this band.“

Speaking of labor, another element impacted the album significantly. Half of the band members had babies during the year leading up to the recording process. The family way refocused the band members’ collective energy away from over-thinking the recording process, which allowed the spirit and playfulness of Railroad Earth’s music to fully emerge. “Having babies has given us a entirely new perspective on things,” says Grubb. “Instead of obsessing over a single note, we let the music and songs play themselves."

“The changes in our lives brought about a peacefulness that is reflected in the music,” says Sheaffer. “We consciously tried to take the approach of ‘less is more’ in how we arranged the songs.” To help achieve the final sound of the album the band brought in Grammy Award-winning engineer/mixer Phil Nicolo, who mixed and mastered Amen Corner. He recommended the band prune its material back to the stump, so it could grow back again fuller and more beautiful.

Throughout the album, organic songs unfurl gently, like a canvas sail on a sweet summer day. On the shimmering opener “Been Down This Road,” and the beautifully thoughtful tracks “Little Bit O’ Me” and “Lovin’ You,” the band captures a poignant simplicity and charm, while the haunting masterpiece ballad “All Alone,” takes you on a journey to unexpected and emotional places. But, of course, this band can burn some acoustic rubber with tracks like “Crossing the Gap,” “Bringin’ My Baby Back Home,” and “Waggin’ the Dog,” proving they’re wicked instrumentalists too. And, finally, they meet somewhere in the sublime middle on deeply felt tracks like “Hard Livin’,” “You Never Know” and “Right In Tune.”

Without a doubt, Sheaffer-the-songwriter produces his personal best on Amen Corner, and his band buds agree. “In my opinion Todd has to be one of the best songwriters ever in the history of songwriting,” says Grubb, only half joking. “Right now, I feel like this is the first record we’ve made that’s truly great.”

If the perfectly crafted songs on Amen Corner are any indication, there are plenty more choice works to come. Everything on Amen Corner comes together like pieces of a perfect whole, derived from a single, freewheelin’ session of inspired soulfulness. “We have gotten so tight and so good at reading each other and doing what needs to be done,” says Grubb. “And this is the first time we’ve hit that stride on record.”

It’s only taken the band a few years to hit that stride. Railroad Earth started out in 2001, a bunch of talented friends interested in strumming some rootsy music together. It began rather informally, but then picked up the pace when their five song demo earned them a spot at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival that June. Taking advantage of the opportunity, they quickly recorded five more songs, combined it with their demo tracks and released it as their debut, 2001’s The Black Bear Sessions. That debut piqued the interest of Sugar Hill Records, who signed them and released two highly acclaimed albums, Bird In A House in 2002 and The Good Life in 2004.

Since then, they’ve cultivated a huge fan base, wound up by the band’s unique acoustic hybrid sound. Railroad Earth has come to thrive in a live setting; as evidenced on their 2006 live album Elko, which essentially served as an emphatic end of Phase I for the band.

Amen Corner is the brilliant opening salvo of Phase II. This time out, Railroad Earth went into the recording process in search of vibe over perfection; six players with widely diverse musical interests and backgrounds brought together to explore the uplifting feelings of being “right in tune” and embracing the spirit of transcendent material. “It’s that intangible quality that each guy in this band is going for,” says Sheaffer. “That’s how we connect and that’s what makes our music fly.”