“You’ll have a good time if you come and see us play,” says Whiskey Gentry lead singer Lauren Staley. Her sentiment might explain why, in one short year of playing live gigs, the Cherokee band have garnered sold-out houses and received a heavy dose of positive reviews.
   But though they may be called country, it’s not pure country roads they roll down, but alt-country/bluegrass/punk/Appalachian mountain roads they travel in their songs. This six-member eclectic circus serve up precise, toe/boot tapping sets headed up by the singing and writing talents of Staley, who is from Kennesaw, and collaborator and song architect Jason Morrow, a native Tennessean who grew up in Cherokee County.
   The rest of the band is an engaging group: Chesley Lowe (any fan of banjo music will enjoy him – run, don’t walk, to hear him play), bass player Sam Griffin from the UK and drummer Price Cannon, who grew up in East Cobb. Add the deft Dan Emmett on fiddle and despite their insistence on the fun aspect of being performing artists, there’s some serious melding of genres here.
   This is Grand Ol’ Opry by way of Hee Haw with a stop at CBGBs, the hip New York club where many a punk act achieved legendary status. You are just as likely to see 40-year-olds as 20-somethings in their audience and when talking to Staley, who is 24, there’s a definite feeling of youth remembering yesteryear.
She speaks with fondness of favorites like Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams and perennial punks the Misfits, then in the same breath mentions Allison Krauss and Bela Fleck. An English major in college, Staley’s fascination with the highly dramatic Broadside Ballad (old English and Irish folk tales set to music that weave elaborate tales of scorned lovers, murder and all manner of human frailties) influenced her musical direction and writing and it’s apparent in the juxtaposition of bold subjects and the bright, upbeat quirkiness in some tunes on their first two EPs (titled, simply, “One” and “Two ).
   To sample The Whiskey Gentry go to Comcast cable’s “Bands On Demand” in the “Get Local” menu. You can become a fan Facebook or go to the band’s MySpace page for music and touring info: http://www.myspace.com/thewhiskeygentry