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Alana Amram & The Rough Gems

July 5, 2008

Alana Amram & The Rough Gems are a Brooklyn-based Country/Americana band. I’ve mostly seen Ms. Amram perform with 5 other players including an organ and a serious pedal-steel by Mr. Phillip Sterk. Sometimes she performs with the entire family forming The Rough Gems Big Band, they bring out harmonicas, recorders and tin whistles, it’s really a party! I’m really quite picky with my country music selections, but I can tell you that Alana’s songs are extraordinary. Her lyrics take me to a place where life is simple, a dusty country road at night, following a cowboy lover who goes to Mexico. The best description of her most recent EP puts it easily “on a classic country comp, in the background of a Dolly Parton biopic or coming out of a dusty Waffle House juke box.”. I don’t have to tell you, she is also FOXY and can play a mean guitar. Watch this youtube clip of her doing “Painted Lady” with sister Adira. Her next show is at Galapagos, in Brooklyn on July 9th. In the meantime, enjoy these photos from The Knitting Factory where she opened for Richard Lloyd’s new band, The Sufimonkey Trio.