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Bio Tour Schedule News and Reviews Discography Photos
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N E W S . A
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V I E W S
King Wilkie: Reviews for Low Country Suite “[King Wilkie] has embraced a more sophisticated and introspective approach with Low Country Suite.” King Wilkie: Monroe's Horse, Just A Different Color ---
---- Monroe's Horse, Just a Different
Color Ever since the release of King Wilkie's breakthrough disc Broke on Rebel Records three years ago, it has been very, very easy to encounter reviews and profiles celebrating the young band from Charlottesville, Virginia, for their energetic, back-to-basics approach to hard-driving, traditional bluegrass. After all, aren't the boys named for Bill Monroe's horse? Don't they wear those dark, gentlemanly suits even in the middle of summer; work a single mike with tight, late-40's harmonies, stick to classic instruments, and put the first-generation, genre-building songs up-front in their shows? Descriptions such as "the future of bluegrass" and "new kings of bluegrass" have been plastered on them - as has, with considerably more consideration, the IBMA's Emerging Artist of the Year award in 2004. Heady stuff. But from the standpoint of the six band members, the very nature of the praise was becoming troubling. Click here to read more. ---- |
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KING
WILKIE
SIGNS TO ROUNDER RECORDS
LOW COUNTRY SUITE
DUE JUNE 26 ON ZOË/ROUNDER RECORDS
(Burlington,
MA) - Rounder Records is pleased to announce the signing of
Charlottesville, Virginia sextet King Wilkie
to its Zoë imprint. King
Wilkie's Zoë/Rounder release Low
Country Suite finds the band incorporating their deeply rooted
study of the past into a new musical framework of their own invention.
Low Country Suite features eleven original songs produced
by Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Dixie Chicks, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Wilco)
and streets June 26.
King Wilkie formed in 2003 with Reid Burgess (Vocals, Mandolin, Ukulele, Organ, Piano, Banjo, Toy Piano, Marxophone), Jake Hopping (Upright Bass, Percussion), John McDonald (Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica), Ted Pitney (Acoustic Guitar, Lap Steel Guitar, National Steel Guitar, Electric Guitar), Nick Reeb (Violin, Viola, Accordion, Piano, Kazoo), and Abe Spear (Banjo, Pedal Steel). The band started a journey that took them from a suburban upbringing with a pop MTV soundtrack to an all-consuming obsession with bluegrass. Yet, even as they were named 2004’s Emerging Artist of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association, their sound was extending outward in directions that could no longer be contained under the bluegrass banner. Click here to read more.
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MUSIC:
Nashville Bluegrass Band, King Wilkie
to perform in January in Hamlin
By DEREK
HALSEY
The Herald-Dispatch
January 2007
HAMLIN,
W.Va. -- Three
musicians who helped to bring the music of the movie "O
Brother, Where Art Thou" to life will be playing in Hamlin,
W.Va., as a part of the award-winning Nashville Bluegrass Band.
The concert, also featuring King Wilkie, will take place at the Lincoln County High School auditorium. The show will be the third installment in the Lincoln County Friends of the Arts concert series. Click here for more.
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King
Wilkie to Perform at the 2004 Americana Music Conference
The Americana Music
Association has announced the lineup of artists performing at the 2004
Americana Music Association Conference held from September 23-25 at
the Nashville Convention Center. The 5th annual event holds
evening showcases at local music venues. Red-hot bluegrass band, King Wilkie, has been selected to
perform among a stellar lineup of artists during the conference.
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Charlottesville,
VA-based King Wilkie is a hard-driving traditional bluegrass band that
combines the exuberance of youth with the finesse and style of
journeymen musicians. Acknowledging
their debt to father of bluegrass Bill Monroe, by naming themselves
after his favorite horse, the band is comprised of Reid Burgess
(mandolin/lead vocals), John McDonald (guitar/lead vocals), Ted Pitney
(lead guitar/harmony vocals), Abe Spear (banjo), Nick Reeb (fiddle)
and Drew Breakey (upright bass). King Wilkie’s live indie debut,
True Songs, was released in 2003, and Broke, their debut on premier
bluegrass imprint Rebel Records, has just been released and features
genre standards as well as original compositions that honor those
traditions.
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Reviews
“Taking their influence from Bill Monroe and Del McCoury, King Wilkie is one of the young groups that will maintain the true wonder of bluegrass.”
-
WTJU FM Charlottesville, VA
“King Wilkie bears veteran maturity bolstered by youthful enthusiasm.”
- Bluegrass Now Magazine
“A band on the brink.”
- Playboy Magazine
“Some of the best old-style bluegrass I’ve heard in a long time. The banjo player was simply spectacular, while the nasal drawl of the lanky guy on rhythm guitar called to mind the very late, very great, Hank Williams.”
- C’Ville Weekly