Agents Of Good Roots
Straightaround
RCA

The new album from Agents Of Good Roots, a Richmond, Virginia quartet, is a trippy, moving piece of jazz based rock that grabs your ears from start to finish. Made up of classically trained guitarist/keyboarist/vocalist Andrew Winn, drummer/vocalist Brian Jones, bassist Stewart Myers, and saxophonist J. C. Kuhl, the group takes melodies through odd time changes and strange jazz intonations that anyone who likes any type of jazz would enjoy. The band has been playing regionally on the east coast for almost four years now and they just signed a contract with RCA records in February.

The album was recorded entirely live by John Alagia and Doug Derryberry (responsible for the first album from Virginia-based the Dave Matthews Band) in Richmond and Charlottesville over a two month period, it is a good attempt at taking a live band and placing them into a static medium while keeping the energy from their show. The album's bright spots come on Get Me There - a gospel tinged track with some incredible sax work, Straight - a long jam featuring some Hammond B3 work from Doug Wannamaker (of the Gibb Droll Band), and Miss America - a poppy groove with a catchy guitar riff and chorus of "rock and roll, miss america is rock and roll..."

Copyright © 1997 John M. P. Athayde