Untamed (CD - 1999)

Yankee Grey: Tim Hunt (vocals, acoustic guitar); Matt Basford (vocals, electric guitar); Joe Caverlee (vocals, fiddle); Jerry Hughes (vocals, keyboards); Dave Buchanan (vocals, bass); Kevin Griffin (vocals, drums).

Additional personnel: Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); Josh Leo (electric guitar); Joe Perry (slide guitar); John Catchings (cello); David Hoffner (strings); Tom Roady (percussion); Robert Ellis Orrall (background vocals).

Producers: Robert Ellis Orrall, Josh Leo, Ronnie Thomas.

Recorded at Emerald Sound Studios, Nashville, Tennesse.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

In 1997, Monument Records (a Sony imprint) took a chance on a female country trio who played their own instruments and wrote some of their own material in a frisky style that brought back some real country to the then-pop-oriented genre. That was the Dixie Chicks, and it was as good as printing your own money. Alongside the Chicks' second album comes another roll of the dice by Monument, this time with a male sextet that writes most of its own songs and plays its own instruments on its self-titled debut album. And though lightning probably won't strike twice, Yankee Grey is another winner for the label, as the fast-charting first single "All Things Considered" instantly makes clear. This is a band that fought its way out of the Cincinnati bar scene, and it still has a lot of bar band in it, as its members play like they're trying to grab your attention over the noise. Singer and main songwriter Tim Hunt has a solid voice, and he knows his way around the kind of gently ironic, lyric Nashville loves, from the declaration of love "That Would Be Me" to the hit-single-in-waiting "I Should've Listened to Me." The music is a mixture of country, rock, and pop, with different elements dominating at different times. (You figure that at the bar they could cover everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to George Jones.) The result rocks harder than Alabama, but is smoother than the Kentucky Headhunters, and there just may be a niche waiting for a band that sounds like that. ~ William Ruhlmann

With its debut, UNTAMED, Yankee Grey, a six-piece outfit named after one member's favorite brand of iced tea, is mining the same vein as the now-defunct Restless Heart: tight harmonies, soulful vocals, and a Southern-rock edge. But Yankee Grey is no rip-off--the group has used those basic ingredients to create an immensely enjoyable sound that's uniquely its own.

The CD gets off to a great start with the acapella harmonies of the first track, "All Things Considered," a deceptively upbeat number about a guy whose life is falling apart. The catchy guitar hooks, killer melody, and non-stop energy of this track set the pace for the rest of the album. The band rocks out hard on numbers like the lascivious "Untamed" and the clever "This Ain't It," but the group also has a tender side, demonstrated by the lovely "That Would Be Me" and the swoony, will-you-marry-me ballad "There's Only One." Yankee Grey's playing is tight and top-notch--especially noteworthy are the well-placed fiddle solos from member Joe Caverlee. While there aren't many county bands that have managed to maintain long-lasting careers (i.e., Alabama, Sawyer Brown), UNTAMED shows that Yankee Grey has what it takes to stick around for the long haul. minimize