BEST MUSIC POLL
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BOSTON
Best Roots Act in Boston
Kingsley Flood
If you consider rootsy Americana to be a dour yoke worn by groups of dreary Luddites afraid to cut loose and join the modern world, then you haven't heard Kingsley Flood. Their roots cred owes to the masterful fiddle and mandolin playin' and the whiff of Appalachia found on their debut, Dust Windows, but the music's sheer exuberance is beyond time or genre. And though they're capable of quiet introspection and moments of majestic solemnity (as on the organ-heavy "Cathedral Walls"), their fans ticked the ballot for the hip-shaking enthusiasm of their more boisterous moments (imagine a shotgun wedding gone off the rails). Lead Flooder Naseem Khuri has the authority in his voice to keep the whole thing from coming off like po'-faced creative anachronism, and the band's boundless giddiness is enough to make you never want to hear a synthesizer again.
Runners-up
2. Joy Kills Sorrow
3. Tim Gearan Band
4. Tony the Bookie
by DANIEL BROCKMAN
Kingsley Flood
Coming out of Boston, Kingsley Flood knows “Americana” music isn’t a cliché world of cabins, hollers and ’shine—but songs about ordinary people’s challenges set to...
