“Trading songs, both Doud and Taylor offered gem after gem of some of the finest California songwriting in the state (and if you’ve never heard Doud’s “Lost Claim” or Taylor’s “Young When I Left Home” drop what you’re doing right now and find them).”

“-Doud is also the one that brings the meat and potatoes to the Thrift Store’s sound. Songs like “The Wolfman” and “Chuck” are studies in how to convey wisdom through music, while “Little Bit O’ Livin'” and “Highway Religion” are just plum fun to listen to. Together, Willy Tea and Chris Doud touch on all of the colors of the songwriting spectrum, and compile a list of songs on Old Excuses that sends you reeling through the wild range of human emotions.”

“Chris Doud can write a song that will leave the listener enraptured as his words recount the goodness of climbing out of the city and into the cedars of the high country where the calm of mountains can wash over us and erase the frenzied pace of the metropolis. His words lead us away from the lost mining claims synonymous with empty relationships to the gold found in those partnerships that, with work, can pay out like the magic claims of legend. Doud can drive us down the religion of a highway covered in truck stop scripture and the truth only found in long journeys that wrap around the whole country and put the nation’s dirt under our nails.”