Joy Kills Sorrow On Mountain Stage

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Joy Kills Sorrow performed at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland. Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage hide caption

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Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage

Joy Kills Sorrow performed at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland.

Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage

The bold, young, Boston-based string band Joy Kills Sorrow kicks off a historic edition of Mountain Stage, recorded as part of the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland. With a foot firmly planted in its bluegrass roots — the band's name is a play on the call letters of the Indiana radio station that broadcast the Monroe Brothers in the 1930's — Joy Kills Sorrow's influences from the worlds of jazz, pop, swing and rock are clearly felt in its polished arrangements.

Featuring a talented group of players — including award winning flatpicker Matthew Arcara on guitar, Berklee's first full-scholarship mandolin student Jacob Jolliff, bassist/songwriter Bridget Kearney, a winner of the 2006 John Lennon Songwriting Contest, captivating vocalist Emma Beaton and accomplished banjo player Wesley Corbett — Joy Kills Sorrow combines the virtuoso musicianship of traditional bluegrass with songwriting that touches on contemporary life and love with humor, intelligence and wit. The band plays five original songs, spanning its recent album, Darkness Sure Becomes This City, and its unreleased follow-up, due later this year.

After Joy Kills Sorrow is a performance of Lucinda Williams' "Kiss Like Your Kiss," by Julie Adams and the Mountain Stage band. The song was recently featured on the soundtrack to the television series "True Blood."

This segment originally ran on April 5, 2011.