Album Notes

The Incorrigible String Band is best defined by their self-coined term “New-Timey” – acoustic music infused with elements of bluegrass, folk, blues, and old-time appalachian music.

We like to say that The Incorrigible String Band is similar to Old Crow Medicine Show meets John Prine crossed with Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers mixed with Andrew Bird blended with Johnny Cash and John Hartford jammin’ unplugged with Modest Mouse. Catch our drift?

The Rex, Georgia based ISB prominently features the song-writing talents of guitar playing lead singer Cory Chambers. Cory has the knack for writing songs that you find yourself singing in shower two days after you hear them. Instead of regurgitating themes about “cabins, that gal in Caroline, and trains” (all valid and timely themes when Bill Monroe and his early imitators wrote the classics) Cory simply writes about things in his world (and yours) but he does it with a simple, direct, bluegrass sensibility. A good example is the song “Text Me” which describes the universal desire to hear “I love you” from the one you love. In “Text Me”, without trying to be clever, Cory utilizes the modern “love note” consisting of digitized wireless broadband technology. To the twenty-somethings of this decade a text message is the equivalent of the folded notebook paper passed in class. Cory writes about "the way things are" but plays them with the sound of "the way things were."

Cory’s concept for The Incorrigible String band extends to his choices of the occasional cover song as well. The song “No One” on this CD is a prime example. The unexpected appearance of a song by Alicia Keys on a hillbilly-grass band’s debut recording represents Cory’s gift of juxtaposition, wit and scope. The Incorrigible String Band, playing live, is just as likely to do a song by Beyonce as by Uncle Dave Macon.

The balance of the Incorrigible String band is an experienced lineup of musicians including the masterful and melodic Harps Jackson on harmonica, the quirky and jazzy mandolin of Tim Ussery, and Bradley Laird’s Kay bass.

Be Incorrigible!