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Genre mixing can is musical alchemy: attempting transmutation but accomplishing failed mutation. Used record store bins are rife with failed attempts at blending the forms and nuances of disparate genres. But when the attempt succeed the potential arises for the establishment of new classics, the creation of new standards, and the genesis of new genres. Whether intentionally or not, it’s with an alchemist’s spirit of discovery that Minneapolis’ A Night in the Box attempts to fuse Zeppelin-esque rock with traditional bluegrass.
So let’s start with Led Zeppelin. Get rid of John Paul Jones on bass. Now add a banjo, a fiddle, and some snazzy hats, and you’re starting to get the feeling for what A Night in the Box is like. Banging drums mix with rolling banjo lines. Electric guitars weave a crunching counterpoint to winding fiddle melodies. And above it all are Clayton Hagen’s powerful vocals, sounding like a young Robert Plant.
Hagen formed A Night in the Box with high school friends Alex Dalton and Travis Hetman in 2006. The same year they released their debut, The Hustle, The Prayer, The Thief on Afternoon records. Even though the band was new you could already hear the beginnings of something interesting on the debut. For their followup, this year’s Write a Letter, the band added violinist Kailyn Spencer, rounding out the bluegrass in their already distinctive sound.
“Broken-Down Radiator Romance”
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The Robert Plant comparisons are very apt for this, the album’s opener. Alternating between loud and soft, noisy and clean, rocking and rockingier, “Broken-Down Radiator Romance” clearly illustrates the harder side of A Night in the Box.
“Fiddle Foot Jones”
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With the banjo taking the lead, “Fiddle Foot Jones” shows both the bluegrass roots of the band, and how easily they move from one genre to another, and even blend the two.
Videos
“The Legend of Kevin Mitch”, live
“Rich Man’s Table”, live
Links
Buy Write a Letter
MySpace
Afternoon Records
