SPLIT LIP RAYFIELD
Should Have Seen It Coming (Bloodshot Records)
Reviewed by Holly Day

---

In a genre that usually features songs about good, simple people who live in the hills, the majesty of sunrises and sunsets and big mountains and deep valleys, lessons learned from one's mother or father, and chasing wildlife with one's dog, Split Lip Rayfield is a refreshing change. These fast-picking bluegrass songs are all about drinking cheap beer, hitting on your cousin, being a middle-class kid wanting to be redneck in a trailer park, Gillian Welch, and doing drugs. It's pretty fucking hilarious. Even more than having a good sense of humor, though, the mandolin, banjo, guitar and home-made gas-take bass ensemble of SLR just kicks ass musically, and would easily have been able to sit in with Jim & Jesse or Earl Scruggs back in the day.

© 2005 - Holly Day