The Broken Family Band

An Americana act from the tweedy university town of Cambridge, England, might sound like a bad idea from the start, but then the Southern gothic missionaries the Band were four-fifths Canadian, so clearly Americana is as much a state of mind as it is a geographic necessity. The Broken Family Band formed in Cambridge in 2001 with the initial intention of being one of those bands that's more of a collective than anything else, with members drifting in and out according to need and whim, but although friends and invited guests regularly contribute to the group's live shows and albums, the core of the band quickly stabilized as singer and guitarist Steven Adams, lead guitarist Jay Williams, bassist Gavin Johnson, and drummer Mick Roman. The Broken Family Band debuted in late 2002 with the seven-track EP, The King Will Build a Disco, on their own Snowstorm label. A single, "The Perfect Gentleman," followed in the spring of 2003, with the full-length debut Cold Water Songs appearing that summer. Three more singles, "Mitchum's Corner" (on the estimable German alt-country label Glitterhouse), "At the Back of the Chapel," and "Poor Little Thing," and the EP Jesus Songs preceded the Broken Family Band's second album, 2005's Welcome Home, Loser. The group's third album, Balls, followed in early 2006, and the fourth, Hello Love, appeared in the summer of 2007.