Johnny Stanec Narrow Is This Ghost Town When First In Space called it quits late last year, it left a void in the Youngstown music scene. The band was arguably the best power pop group in the area when it hit its peak in that final year together. Johnny Stanec was the band’s workhorse, getting the band in front of anyone and everyone that he could. He also was the band’s primary lyricist and wrote at least half of the band’s tracks during its duration. He had a great supporting cast with him much of the time in FIS, so it was with some skepticism that “Narrow Is This Ghost Town” was reviewed. With the opening guitar line and accented open chords of album opener “Goodnight My Love,” any doubts are quickly put to rest. This is the album First in Space should’ve followed up “Geronimo” with, and frankly because it’s only Stanec writing, is more focused and in many ways better. Stanec plays nearly everything on this record himself, including drums on all but a few tracks. “Let Me Know The Future” and “Sunny Days Are Nothing New” rock with a Replacements/“Warning”-era Green Day vibe, and Stanec, who also gave his own controversial comments to this very rag, sings with desperation and despair on “Dear Enemy,” “Borrowed Time” and “I’m Not Young Anymore.” There’s hints of Ryan Adams in “Tearing Me Down Tonight” as well as influential nods to Jessie Mallin all over the album. “A Case Of My Bad Luck” sounds like the soundtrack to Youngstown. “I spend my nights on the bathroom floor, calling out just to be ignored … I’m afraid I’ve hurt to much, it’s just a case of my bad luck … lately things have been going swell, or else I’m just getting used to hell, I’m drowning fast in this wishing well, it’s almost full if you could not tell.” Stanec is an incredible player, but most importantly an incredible songwriter. It’s about time someone gives him credit for it. 9/10 – B.J. Lisko