Every musician winds up being the sum of their influences, but the truly great ones find distinctive ways to filter and adapt what they’ve absorbed from their heroes and peers alike into an original soundtrack all their own. Such is the case for Doug Albregts, the one-man band known as Little Falls Trophy.

Like many musicians before him, Albregts looked to The Beatles for guidance, but he found his own path for building upon The Fab Four’s impeccable songwriting template. “They were a trigger point for me because I was not a seasoned songwriter at the time,” Albregts observes. “I was taking notes while watching them as kids, and what struck me was their natural instincts. They took relatively simple things and were able to make them so unique, yet they also remained so complex in their own way.”

Those insightful observations also describe Little Falls Trophy’s second album, Dutch Motel, to a T. Dutch Motel is set for digital release on July 21st, 2023 from Rock Ridge Music, with a limited edition 180-gram vinyl pressing available exclusively on the Little Falls Trophy website and at upcoming shows.

1. Thursday’s Friday
2. Autumn Audio
3. My Little Sunshine
4. Project 6636
5. Universal
6. Heart Spark
7. Shared Melody
8. Irreverent
9. Sidelined
10. Silhouette
11. Janie and Jimmy

This melodically infused, and emotionally reflective new album opens on the drum-guitar, mid-tempo rocker Thursday’s Friday (which nods to our collective addiction to social media) and the languishing Autumn Audio and then we are given the playful little love song My Little Sunshine, the soaring synth-electro pop of Project 6636, and then comes the R.E.M.-esque Universal.

On an album that according to Doug himself, feels like a sing-along journey for those who give it a spin, and quite rightly so, up next is the euphoric rock sewn within the melodic Heart Spark, the foot tapper Shared Melody, and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the brilliant ’90s alt-rock flashback of Irreverent, the mellow, low slung indie sounds found within Sidelined, the recording rounding out on the psych-hued Silhouette, closing on the storytelling of Janie and Jimmy.

A modern throwback, of sorts, if you like the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s time period of music, the album has got a little something for you all. The hooks and melodies will get you singing. The beats and rhythms will have your body moving. For there truly is something for everyone here on this delightfully soulful album.

While the band name Little Falls Trophy is a direct homage to a well-loved, family-owned trophy shop located in Albregts’ home state of New Jersey, it’s also meant to encompass the evocative broad-stroke ruminations of a 21st century American songwriter wholly in touch with the life-pulse of the cultural here and now. “Yeah, I’d say the name refers to Anywheretown, USA,” admits Albregts. “At first I was only using it as a placeholder, but the more I lived with it, it just seemed to fit perfectly.”

Dutch Motel is the portal pit stop that sets the course for where Doug Albregts the artist will travel next. Every one of this galvanizing album’s 11 songs are no mere dress rehearsals — they are all visceral chronicles of modern life being lived to the fullest. And now, the endless sonic awards of Little Falls Trophy’s Dutch Motel await your ears.

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Little Falls Trophy @ Facebook