Buskers You Should Know: Kingsborough

In his thick rimmed glasses, Fedora style hat and an effortless cool, Billy Kingsborough, comes across like the intelligent and loveable ‘boy next door’. On the backdrop of Chroma Gallery in the beautiful Sonoma County, Jessup Chardonnay, gently sloshing in glasses, the warm buzz of good people and great conversation filling the air, I entered into a conversation with four young gentleman; musicians with an array of stories and experiences, from busking in Argentina to playing the world renowned festival Bottle Rock, and I ended the evening with their CD in hand and the promise to give it a listen. What I discover is that the music, like the artists, is intelligent and immediately—well, lovable.

Kingsborough are four; Billy Kingsborough (Lead Vocals/ Guitar), Alex Leach (Guitar/ Backup Vocals), Chris Mangione (Bass/ Backup Vocals), John Whitney (

). This mighty quartet of rock take no prisoners on their current album, The Night, The Grind and the Woes, which builds from slow simmering verses to guitar crunching whirlwinds of chorus. It is a rocker’s delight, visiting the signature sound of the classic tunesters of eighties hair metal—the operative term here is signature sound—sans hair. Hair metal itself, is a sub-genre of hard rock, which combines elements of punk and pop, and although Kingsborough don’t borrow the aesthetic of glam rock, they definitely pay homage to the sound; ala Dokken, Bon Jovi or Cinderella. It is a sound punctuated with an obvious devotion to Seventies power pop luminaries, Cheap Trick and the Raspberries. The album listens like a fusion of the two, fist pumping guitars and sugary melodicism; ‘Who-like’ muscle coupled with ‘Tom Petty-like’ soul. What has *happened* to music in between then and now has been a slow, grinding death of sound and creativity in a sea of marketing ploys, auto tune and the occasional Cyborg gorilla. Enter Kingsborough, with an offering of lush vocals, iridescent strings and enough pure foot stomping fun, to get your motor ticking, giving us an an album of instant vintage vibes.

The opening tack, Til The Road Ends, takes its cue from Molly Hatchet and is a feisty, flexible jam with a harder edge. For those of us who are air guitar aficionados and thrash with the best of them, this track is plain and simple hard rocking fun, to cruise to with the top down.

After fifteen tracks/I hear The Rolling Stones/A bucket of coffee/And the radio/Come On/ And we’ll go there/Til the Road Ends

Stir the Beast, opens with darkly heroic, surging drums, slightly distorted guitar and vocals that steal the show. Within this fusion, Kingsborough have found a way to capture and reheat the old fashioned arena rock energy into something new and inventive. It’s at moments like this a collective breath of relief is exhaled, as we consider that this could be where mainstream rock is headed.

Raise your hands to the beast/fill the sky with thunder/it will bring you to your knees

A golden moment is Sinner. It’s a ballsy ballad, with teeth and grit. When Billy Kingsborough sings, the emotion is real. Defiant guitars slicing through delicious harmonies, vocal power executed with perfection and precision.

Lord I am a Sinner/Hell-bent on changing His way/My God has forsaken me/And the Devil took me in/My mind is my worst enemy/as it chases me across the plain/River/Sweet River/Wash my soul clean/I called on religion/I called on love/I found myself a prisoner/I found myself torn.

Sinner is a defining moment on the album, one where you can hear the evolution of four young musicians leaning in the direction of a heavy metal version of Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Allman Brothers. Armed with this sound, Kingsborough proves that they will only get more interesting as they tackle what happens after their youth.

#buskers #Turntable