Boston Phoenix

May 1, 2003

"Americana" bands are as ubiquitous as flag pins thesedays, but The Coming Grass, from Portland, Maine, area welcome corrective to a nation of non-depressive alterna-country sound-alikes. Sure, they love UncleTupelo as much as the next cowpoke. Hell, they'll even oblige if an ex-Tupelo drummer wants to pound skins on their record, as Mr. Ken Coomer did on the Grass' most recent, 'Transient' (Velvet Ed). But they're no wide-eyed flannel-clad acolytes - their songs are built on plangent riffs and the honeyed husband-wife harmonies of Nate Schrock and Sara Cox. Schrock toured with The Clash and The Ramones in his punk days (still not quite over); Cox hails from Nashville, if that helps you locate their sound on the tattered roadmap of American music.