(Self-released, digital)
Florida native Kristian Montgomery settled easily into Vermont life when he moved here in 2020, making a happy home in Wallingford complete with goats, horses and fowl. His sound, on the other hand, may not have fit into the Green Mountain musical landscape quite as well.
“I’m unique to the scene and don’t fall in with the jam bands, and the bluegrass scene is not where I’ll find a permanent residency,” Montgomery wrote in an email to Seven Days. “The country vibe doesn’t fit my unconventional songwriting,” he went on, adding that while he and his backing group, the Winterkill Band, are loud at times, “we aren’t a consistent scream … We fit somewhere in between all of the above.”
Kristian Montgomery and the Winterkill Band just released their fourth album in three years, Lower County Outlaw. Though somewhat genre bending, the record’s country-rock sound leans on a tried-and-true blend of bluesy guitar riffs, rock and roll drums, and captivating vocals, tempered with pop and alt-rock melodic sensibilities.
Lower County Outlaw is a strong album. The team Montgomery assembled to record it — John Clark on guitar, Dave Leitch and Mark Harding on bass, and drummer Andrew Koss, who also engineered and produced — shows considerable technical skills and plays well together. Key to this album’s appeal is its authenticity. The sound is unforced, confident and catchy without being pushy. Montgomery is a self-proclaimed straight shooter — “I promise you’ll feel me, you’ll know I’m telling it straight and it ain’t gonna be sugar,” he writes on his band’s website — and that attitude radiates through his music.
The group has also mastered the art of space, as evidenced by the album’s penultimate track, “A Little Lower.” The song isn’t overcrowded with noise, which allows the listener room to appreciate the pop of the snare, the quality of the vocals and the infectious groove of the guitar solo during the breakdown.
Lower County Outlaw also succeeds in bringing variety. Montgomery harks back to his days as an alt-rocker in Florida on “Around and Around” — I can practically hear Chris Cornell singing this ’90s grunge era-style rock ballad. Other cuts, like “Gypsy Girl,” lean more into country-pop. “Lost in Memphis” is harder, with a heavy metal-inspired guitar riff, while “Easy to Forget You When I’m Gone” would be right at home on a modern country radio station.
Montgomery’s music may not fit squarely in one genre, but that’s also what makes Lower County Outlaw great. Kristian Montgomery and the Winterkill Band, Vermont welcomes you with open arms. If the residents of the Green Mountains are known for jam bands and bluegrass music, we are equally known for independence and following the beat of our own drum. In this way, you are right at home.
Listen to Lower County Outlaw on all major streaming platforms.
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2023.
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