| Boston-based string band Joy Kills Sorrow performs in Bowling Green Thursday (Photo provided) |
Guitar, bass, banjo and mandolin…the widely acknowledged ingredients for bluegrass music, and for many
casual fans an easy way to associate a musical group with a specific genre and performance style is
based upon their instrumentation alone.
In the case of the Boston-based quintet Joy Kills Sorrow, this connection is only skin deep as the music
they are making is anything but traditional straight-ahead bluegrass, despite their instrumental
line-up.
That is not to say that the roots and soul of bluegrass music cannot be found in their style, which mixes
elements of pop, rock, blues, jazz, Americana and bluegrass. It is original American music, taking
elements from a vast sonic palate and assembling something unique, melodic and many times achingly
beautify for listeners of all backgrounds.
Joy Kills Sorrow performs on Thursday at 8 p.m. at Grounds For Thought, 174 S. Main St., Bowling Green.
The band is touring in support of its critically-acclaimed 2011 album "This Unknown Science."
Despite their relativity young age, all five members of Joy Kills Sorrow have strong, if not diverse,
musical resumes. The band is rooted around lead singer Emma Beaton, who was nominated for
"Traditional Vocalist of the Year" at the 2010 Canadian Folk Music Awards and who won
"Young Performer of the Year" at the Canadian Folk Music Awards 2008.
Beaton is vocally supported by bassist Bridget Kearney, who studied jazz bass at The New England
Conservatory of Music and who won the 2006 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Kearney serves as the
group’s primary songwriter and harmony singer.
Instrumentally the group is lead by three talented performers. Lead guitarist Matthew Arcara won the 2006
Winfield National Flatpicking Guitar Championship. Banjo player Wesley Corbett toured with Crooked Still
and currently teaches banjo at Berklee College of Music. Finally, mandolinist Jacob Jolliff is Berklee’s
first full-scholarship mandolin student, has toured since the age of 11 and has shared the stage with
mandolin legends including David Grisman and Mike Marshall.
But for Joy Kills Sorrow, the strength of the group is not in their ability to take amazing lead
instrumental breaks or to out-perform each other night after night. It rests in their ability to bring
their musical aptitudes together into a sound that favors the ensemble over the individual.
