"Time machine, won't you come for me?/Take me back to where we started" Carroll Gardens 1984 BARSTOW DRIVE is the moniker for singer/songwriter John Zdrojeski, and his particular brand of "bridge and tunnel heartland rock." I nspired by Jason Isbell and Bruce Springsteen, his music is always an exploration: of disillusionment and desire, or nostalgia and loss, or escape and transformation. His lyrics make the ordinary mythical, and read like a cinematic chronicle of modern America, in all its darkness and hope. Nowhere is this more clear than on the Nor'easter EP's, Zdrojeski's third release. The Nor'easter project is Barstow Drive's third release. His first was the folk EP Primitive in 2019; the second, the LP Misters, was inspired by classic rock. Nor'easter is the creamy center between the two. Engineered and mixed by Grammy nominee Tom Gardner (Chromeo) and mastered by Grammy nominee Pete Lyman (Brandi Carlisle), the three EP's are vast in their sonic scope; they are cutting and rollicking in equal measure. In an era of unrelenting polarization, Zdrojeski's songs, like his birthplace of Hartford, CT, occupy a middle ground. He doesn't mind that. After all, the middle is where the bullseye is, and that's what he's always aiming for.