Its so hard to categorize this band, and I find it even more difficult with Roots and Crowns.

The Pitchfork review calls it americana or post rock and that may put some possible fans off.

Anyone craving a quick schooling in vintage Americana can spin Harry Smith's The Anthology of American Folk Music or Dust to Digital's Goodbye, Babylon, memorize Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, or waddle through In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain, the Bear Family's gorgeous, heart-skewering Carter Family box set. But if you're more interested in hearing ancient mountain and Delta traditions synthesized-- scratched up, muddied, and re-imagined for an America more reliant on machines than the grace of God-- curl up with Califone's Roots and Crowns, the Chicago collective's staggering homage to starts and finishes, computers and cornfields, dirty feet and throbbing foreheads.

Pitchfork Review: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/articl...ots_and_Crowns

I mean really, what does that tell me???

Thanks to Swishy's generous soul, I have a demo copy in my player at work and I'm pretty much besotten with Roots and Crowns. The cd has 13 tracks but its seems to end way too soon! And how can you not love an album with songs like, Our Kitten Sees Ghots 3 Legged Animals and Black Metal Valentine. I couldn't say which song I like best but I love the beginning of Orchid!

Try it before you buy it but keep in mind its a grower.

Snowie

Note to Swishy-Baby: Does Alejandro always sound like Waits?