By Ken Paulson
It’s that time of the year when we rush to catch up with particularly worthy albums that we never quite got around to reviewing. Case in point is the Whiskey Gentry’s Holly Grove, the second album from the Atlanta-based band.
The Whiskey Gentry melds high-energy bluegrass and traditional country with some attitude, opening the album with heartbreak and honky tonk on “I Ain’t Nothing” and closing with “Here’s Your Song,” presented with the hope that “it finds you in the gutter or in bed with another or wherever the hell you are.”
It’s an album full of impeccable playing, some unexpected themes (“Particles” and the title song) and impressive vocals from Lauren Staley. To top it all off, there’s the surprisingly fresh cover of Peter Rowan’s “Lonesome L.A. Cowboy,” first recorded by the New Riders of the Purple Sage on their Adventures of Panama Red album in 1974.
Here’s a clip of the Whiskey Gentry in their appearance last year on Music City Roots:
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