“What sets the record apart is the constant tension it holds between light and dark,” reads a press release about the EP. “[The song] ’Bag of Bones’ is a grinding, chugging elegy with menace — bluesy and shadowed like a bad memory — while ‘Little Red String’ opens a window into a relatable vulnerability, revealing a flicker of tenderness beneath the smoke and swagger. That push and pull gives the EP its shape and weight, like a back alley preacher rolling up his sleeves to reveal his scars and the stories that birthed them.”
Led by frontman and songwriter Brett Potts, who harmonizes particuarly well with bandmate Autumn Skye (think X’s John Doe and Exene Cervenka), the Kings recorded in two days at the Treehouse Studio in Nashville with bluegrass icon Tim Carter (Alison Brown, Tim O’Brien, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Vassar Clements). Grammy-nominated engineer Dave Harris did the mastering.
“These songs are nothing more than a reflection of the painful roads that, somehow, we all walk down together even though we still feel so alone,” says Potts in a statement.
Willow Tree and the Cowboy Princess Brigade will open for the group when it plays Mahall’s.
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This article appears in Cleveland SCENE 7/30/25.
