The Deadly Gentlemen
Album: Carry Me To Home
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: www.deadlygentlemen.com

Fronted by singer/banjo man Greg Liszt, whose name may be familiar from Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions outfit, The Deadly Gentlemen rattle out as fine a salvo of new wave alt-bluegrass as any you'll hear east of the Ocmulgee River.

At its best (Bad Habit Blues, Bullet In My Shoulder, Moonshiner) it sound solidly rooted in the past without being hampered by it. The punky possibilities of frantic bluegrass sonics have been extensively explored, but grasscore darlings The Deadly Gentlemen create a more rounded and authentic representation of the music's heritage that's unencumbered by misplaced reverence. Crucially the band also delivers tender moments, none more so than the haunting Carry Me To Home, in which they plot a careful course around mawkish sentimentality.

But it's not all history - far from it. The Deadly Gentlemen are hip young gunslingers that know their Slipknot from their Sonny Osborne. Their vocal styling somehow blends three-part harmony singing with rhythmic, rap-flavoured shout outs that reinvent the urban talking blues of yore; their playing slips into death metal overdrive as easily as it does old school rockabilly.

The Deadly Gentleman should find favour with the more progressive end of trad bluegrass spectrum, as well as the anarchoveggietractorcore crowd.

Nick Churchill

www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk