The Howlin' Brothers Record Release: at The Station Inn (Nashville, TN) Wed. March 20, 2013

The Howlin' Brothers Record Release

Bluegrass

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

It may have seemed like these guys only got to town last year, since that’s when they started popping up everywhere from Lower Broad honky-tonks to The Basement with regularity. Truth be told, Ben Plasse, Ian Craft and Jared Green — who cover banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, bass and vocals between them — moved south in the mid-Aughts after meeting at Ithaca College. But Nashville’s where they’ve learned to immerse themselves in jaunty, down-home character and put on a show. After self-releasing several albums, the Brothers got a big boost from Brendan Benson in 2012 — he’d originally sought them out for a Cory Chisel project, but wound up hell-bent on producing their brand-new album, Howl, and releasing it on his Readymade imprint. Not only do they cover their 21^stcentury hillbilly string band bases — reels, fiddle tunes, bluegrass-style romps etc. — they’ve brought raw-nerved rock attack back around to its full-bodied blues roots.

—JEWLY HIGHT