God bless you, Todd, for sending me something that is so right up my alley right now. I don’t know what has made so many punks set down their guitars and pick up mandolins, banjos, and fiddles, and stop drawing so much from Bad Religion and start listening to Merle Haggard, but I ain’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Bread and Roses is right in the thick of this little revolution, playing music that isn’t so much a combination of punk and folk, but rather folk music played with punk attitude and sensibility. And we’re not talking Joan Baez, slow and heartfelt, Kumbaya-hippie-folk: this is foot-stomping, roof-raising, shit-kicking folk, with the feel of Irish drinking songs, bluegrass hoedowns, and mountain string bands in the mix. The overall outcome is a raw and earnest recording of a band I hope to god I get to see live some day. Sarah Shay
–guest (Fistolo)