• [They] should be lifted above the narrow-thinking traditionalists and placed alongside their more progressive contemporaries, such as Gillian Welch, or the Crooked Jades

    — Harp

  • They take traditional bluegrass and add a punk-rock sensibility that works. Original and inventive, they offer tunes that sound written in ancient runes. Jim and Jennie's efforts are the most exciting country/folk/bluegrass body of work I have heard in a long time.

    — Maverick

  • Jim and Jennie and the Pinetops are raging against the dying of the light while at the same time dragging the carcass around with them.

    — Pitchfork Media
Hometown: 
North Carolina and New York

Jim & Jennie met in 1998 in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Jennie Benford grew up in a bluegrass-lovin' family, full of Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe and the like, but spent her teen years trying to figure out the meaning of the cover of Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy." Jim Krewson spent his formative years immersed in hardcore punk and experimental rock, not flipping for the 'grass until he heard his dad's Flatt & Scruggs Mercury recordings.

After meeting up with banjo-prodigy Brad Hutchinson, they set out to fulfill their ambition of winning over both the bluegrass crowd and a broader audience that wasn't necessarily familiar with it. Since then, they released two studio albums, a live, tour-only CD, toured the world, contributed backing skills to Neko Case's live CD The Tigers Have Spoken, and made good on their promise to rocket bluegrass into the 21st century.

They remained respectful of the traditions of the genre, but never constrained by them.

Compilation Tracks: 
Recommended if You Like: 
Gillian Welch
Buffalo Springfield
Shovels & Rope
Songs: Ohia
The Civil Wars
Yonder Mountain String Band
Nickel Creek

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