Juliana Hatfield and Frank Smith

Tripwire: Front man Aaron Sinclair is at the top of his game...Frank Smith is a fairly unclassifiable group, unless indie- honky-tonk is a genre that I've yet to see listed anywhere. Their combination of old school country and indie rock helped form a truly great album, one that fans of everything from The Shins to Golden Smog should make a point to check out

Goldmine: They draw you in, like the smell of a hot pie left to cool on the windowsill. Influenced by Gram Parsons, like everybody else in the alt.-country game, but caught between the Wilco of A.M. and Being There, Frank Smith sets itself apart with its cock-eyed storytelling, the honesty of its songwriting, and the beguiling interplay of slide-guitar, delicately plucked banjo and acoustic strum on slower tracks.

Frank Smiths previous album Red on White names one of the top ten records of 2006 by Bostons The Weekly Dig.

This disc is carefully arranged, shot through with richly textured ruminations, up-tempo barnstormers, and re-verb-and feedback-filled ambiance that gives the proceedings a palpable sense of darkness.....Forlorn harmonica, swampy slide guitar, melancholy melodies, mournful chord progressions and frontman Aaron Sinclairs plaintive tenor evoke longing and loneliness without being maudlin and dispiriting- The Boston Phoenix

Incidentally, Frank Smiths album Heavy Handed Peace and Love is the inaugural release on Hatfield's Ye Olde Records.