THE COMING GRASS :: Performing Songwriter

March/April 2002 · 

The Coming Grass plays alt-country/roots rock the way The Replacements played rock and roll: with guts, whiskey and no apologies. But The Coming Grass have better harmonies.

This Portland, Maine outfit is fronted by songwriter Nate Schrock, a longtime New York rock and punk scene veteran and former member of Paleface (who toured with The Clash and The Ramones) and The Lost. Schrock trades vocals with Sara Cox, whose husky, emotive voice adds mountains of cool to this already cool record. The contributions of guitarist Stephan Jones, dummer Ginger Cote, and piano player Kate Schrock are intelligently chosen and played from the gut.

It's something between the boozy looseness of Uncle Tupelo on No Depression and the driven moodiness of X. Like the best of the roots-rock movement, The Coming Grass take tradition and style and warp it into their own vision rather than simply aping the usual cliches. Cox and Schrock's shared vocals and slippery harmonies call to mind Timbuk 3's Pat and Barbara Macdonald as much as Buddy and Julie MIler, and Schrock's writing has as much in common with Social Distortion's guttural  So-Cal punk as with the Jayhawks or V-Roys.