Folk music review: The Groanbox Boys, Fences Come Down

The Groanbox Boys are an American folk-roots duo whose sound might be said to have melted down the melting pot. Banjo and guitar player Cory Seznec was born in Brittany and raised in Connecticut; his partner, Michael Ward-Bergman, graduated as a classical accordionist from Berklee College of Music before touring eastern Europe with a band of Romanian Gypsies. The album was written and recorded over the course of a week on a Maryland farm; the band did shifts with the crops and animals in return for permission to record in a barn. The result is an extraordinary mix of European and American folk styles - like Uncle Dave Macon dancing on the tables in a Parisian cafe with Django Reinhardt and Clifton Chenier riffing in the background. All the compositions except for the Appalachian murder ballad Little Sadie are originals, many featuring the "Freedom Boot", a large rod covered in bells and bottletops that is the band's signature, home-made rhythm stick.