King Wilkie has released a 6 song live album, Wilkie Family Singers Live, available as a digital download from the band’s web site.
The group has undergone an interesting metamorphosis this past 8 years. They first emerged as a band of rebel, neo-traditionalists in the bluegrass world, taking the IMBA’s Emerging Artist Of The Year award in 2004. Their next album in 2007 took an entirely new direction – more Byrds-inflected folk/rock than anything Bill Monroe ever recorded.
Now their sound is more reflective of the jam band scene, where they combine high energy old time music with jug-bandy originals, using a wide variety of instruments on stage.
These two videos offer a look at how they have morphed. First, a show at Telluride in their bluegrass clothes from the mid-2000s.
And a compilation from several live shows during 2009.
The more things change, no wait… that’s not it.
One full track from the Live EP is available for online listening on the band’s web site.
