The banjo blast at the beginning of the debut CD from Kings County Strings only gives you a hint of what is in store for you. Yes, there is some hard-driving bluegrass here -- beginning with "Bootleg John," the opening cut, and continuing on in such classics as Jim and Jesse's "Hard Hearted" and Pete Goble's "Big Spike Hammer" -- but there also is a good dose of old-time string band music and a grassified Beatles tune among the 11 tracks on the disc. To my ear, little bits of Old & In the Way and the Dillards come out in the Kings County Strings' playing and singing. And as with those classic bands, the listener is left with the overwhelming impression that the Kings County Strings were having some real fun when they made these recordings. It's easy to picture them live in the studio with big smiles and energetic, step-up-to-the-microphone statures, belting out the catchy "Jealous" or trading solos on "Doc & Dawg." The gem of the CD is perhaps the final track, the Eastern Kentucky fiddle tune "Wild Rose of the Mountain." With the addition of Rob Hecht's fiddle, the track begins with Joel Turoff's soft Celtic-inflected guitar and then slowly builds instrument-by-instrument to a grooving high before gently fading away to mark the end of a Brooklyn-style ride through several counties of the musical country known as Americana.

-Matt Winters
WKCR
Moonshine Show Host