Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys

continued

The show hangs together thanks to Lindsay Lou's voice, the overall musicianship, and the appealing quality of these young people who are discovering the classics of rural American music for themselves. Whether they can take it to the next level depends on whether they can integrate the traditional bluegrass with Lindsay Lou's songwriting, which connects with bluegrass but takes off from it at a kind of idiosyncratic angle. The new songs I heard in Kalamazoo showed her wrestling with ways to do just that, and the effort from the members of this hot Michigan band ought to provide an interesting look into the dynamic between music and marriage.   

[Originally published in April, 2012.]