Split Lip Rayfield
Never Make It Home
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Outlaw bluegrass" is the working description for these speedy banjos and doom-and-gloom lyrics from Kansas, but the telling detail on the Wichita quartet's third album comes during "Kiss of Death." The title refers not to a pact with the devil, as you might expect, but a humorous domestic dispute with automobiles everywhere: "Even though Rush sounded good on the stereo, I had killed that car," laments singer-banjoist Eric Mardis. Split Lip Rayfield isn't the first bluegrass band to revisit the dark spirit of old Hank Williams and Bill Monroe songs -- Bad Livers have traveled this road before. But the four singing strummers' primary weapons are melody and harmony; despite the lonely facades of
Read More "Love Please Come Home" and the title track, there's an inner sweetness that recalls the Eagles at least as much as the Carter Family. (STEVE KNOPPER)
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