Va.'s Country Slickers: Juniper Lane

 Clarendon 

FORGET BEING COUNTRY WHEN country wasn't cool. Juniper Lane singer-keyboardist Vivion Smith was Britpop in a town where country ruled. Growing up in rustic Fredericksburg, Va., Smith was not only steeped in country radio, but witnessed the public hanging of the town's one citizen who dared to listen to bouncy British music. OK, we're kidding about that last part. But, still, Smith says she had to really make an effort to learn about rock music when she set off for a music career in big, bad D.C.

"The band teases me repeatedly because they'll make references to pop and rock music from the early 1990s, and I'll go, 'What?'" she laughs. "Because I don't know. On the radio back then, it was mostly country. But I guess here for everybody else growing up it was R.E.M."

You wouldn't guess Smith's background from listening to Juniper Lane's just-released third CD, "Wake From Yourself," which the band is marking with a string of regional dates. Smith's steely vocals ride atop Chris Bonavia's clanging guitars, while bassist Brian Frederick and drummer Eddie Pasa define pure rock. Smith says bands like Coldplay and U2 inspire its sound.

"I think we just generally were drawn toward [a European] sound," she explains. "Lyrically, for me, I feel like I can relate to that more than my American contemporaries. I don't want to insult American music — I am an American musician — but sometimes the British lyric writing, at least for me, seems a little more contemplative."

On the musical end, the band members may all hail from disparate backgrounds, but after performing as a unit for nearly a decade, Smith notes they've "definitely developed one vision for what our sound is."

» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; with Thriving Ivory, Sat., 9:30 p.m., $12; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)

» Fat Tuesday's, 10673 Braddock Road, Fairfax; with Honor by August, No Second Troy, Fri. (May 9), 8 p.m.; $5-$10; 703-385-5717.

Written by Express contributor Tony Sclafani
Photo courtesy Shaleigh Comerford