This young and energetic San Francisco quintet more than fulfills founding guitarist, Jeff Kazor's vision of a band that revives the deep and haunting sounds of old-time mountain music before the influence of radio, and fuses it with the high-lonesome harmonies of bluegrass. While this blurring of the edges is the focus, the band has the ability to play both genres straight and pure. Along with Jeff, the Crooked Jades include Lisa Berman on dobro, slide and clawhammer banjo, and Tom Lucas on banjo and fiddle, as well as David Bamberger on bass and Stephanie Prausnitz on fiddle. In 2000 the group released its second album, Seven Sisters: A Kentucky Portrait, a haunting documentary film soundtrack that explored the early incarnations of ballads and spirituals that have been rooted in the Appalachian culture for more than a century, following it up more recently with The Unfortunate Rake (Copper Creek), on which the Crooked Jades continue their unearthing of the diverse gems of America's rural and mountain music repertoire.