The Whiskey Gentry
Self-released
By Al Kaufman
Yee-Haw!! Only a few months old, and created from the ashes of Missy Gossip, The Whiskey Gentry is here to make you remember how music ought to be. Imagine old time country and gospel meeting punk with just a dash of Vaudevillian flourish, and you start to get an idea of what this band can do.
On their four-song, self-titled EP, Lauren Staley sings likes a fractured angel, who on Saturday nights tends to have a couple too many and is easily coaxed out of her party dress, only to regret it while sitting in the pew Sunday morning.
The banjos, mandolins, fiddles and percussion that ramble on behind her convey emotions as well as her voice does. While "Four Horsemen" offers the kind of haunting, gothic sound that is best associated with Gillian Welch, it is immediately followed by "Dime Short of a Dollar Bill," a rousing bar room rocker that begins with a drunken phone message from someone at a gay country bar. "What kind of girl am I to turn a free drink down?" sings Staley. Thank God and Hank Williams that she doesn't. She wouldn't be damn near as much fun.
The Whiskey Gentry plays Unplugged in the Park (Park Tavern at Piedmont Park) with Rhett Miller, Sunday, August 30. 7 pm. Free.
They also play The EARL on September 9 with Mike LaSage and the Stumbling Troubadours. Tickets are available at Ticket Alternative.
