Silver Mountain (Bloodshot, 2007)

The fiery exuberance of straight forward rock and roll coupled with an exhilarating penchant for country rock would be an apt description for the Deadstring Brothers.

Right from the start, these five guys and a girl from Detroit blast off with some surly rock on "Ain't No Hidin' Love" and "Meet Me Down at Heavy Load" and neatly segue into the edgy country of "If You Want Me To" and the idyllic rendering of the title cut. They're also capable of mixing it up with a smidgen of punk on "Queen of the Seene" and inserting some blues ("Rollin Blues").

The beauty is that each track with the exception of the weak "Some Kind of User" is reminiscent of some of the great and varied artists in both style and substance that have preceded the Deadstring Brothers. For instance, Masha Marjieh's vocals should be favorably compared to Janis Joplin while those of Kurt Mashke to a composite of Hank Williams Jr. and Bob Seger. Equally impressive is the instrumentation by other 'brothers' - drummer E. Travis Harrett, keyboadist Patrick Kenneally and real-life siblings and guitarists Jeff and Spencer Cullum.