Plow to the End of the Row

Adrienne Young & Little Sadie recall Alison Kraus & Union Station in their combination of traditional country and bluegrass sounds with more contemporary tunes, topped by an expressive female singer. The band — guitarist Tyler Grant, fiddler/mandolin player Clayton Campbell, acoustic bassist Amanda Kowalski, and percussionist Steven Sandifer — backs Young, who plays guitar and banjo in addition to singing lead vocals on country hoedowns like "Leather Britches"; primitive-sounding recording techniques are even employed on occasion ("Satan, Yer Kingdom Must Come Down") to make the music sound like it comes from long in the past. But, having established its old-timey bona fides, the group proceeds to update things on country-pop songs like "Home Remedy," a duet between Young and Grant that speaks of love in racy modern terms (with "a healthy dose of lust"), and "Poison," which suggests the bandmembers may have U2 in their record collections and which might intrigue country radio programmers. This, then, is a band that covers a lot of bases, which may make it a good match for a younger country audience drawn to traditional music by O Brother, Where Art Thou? but also open to a hybrid approach.