**1/2

KNOXVILLE GIRLS

(In the Red)

The players -- former Honeymoon Killer Jerry Teel, Jack Martin, and Bob Bert (also formerly of Sonic Youth), along with Cramps/Gun Club alumnus Kid Congo Powers and organist Barry London -- are the Lower East Side equivalent of session musicians, the kind of guys who have been showing up in recombinant downtown ensembles for the past 20 years. The debut by this group, who take their name from an epic traditional murder ballad, feels like the CBGB's version of one of those albums that occasionally gets made down in Nashville when a bunch of grizzled old studio vets plug in while the star is in the bathroom.

Knoxville Girls' taste is impeccable and the execution is flawless (which in Lower East Side lingo means "invitingly flawed"), but there's not much in the way of personality, apart from the Drugstore-Cowboy-as-American-Gothic atmosphere. A third of the tracks are covers: Ray Charles's "I Had a Dream," Charlie Feathers' "Have You Ever," Kenny Rogers' "I Feel Better All Over," and the George Jones-popularized "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Of the originals, "Low Cut Apron/Sugar Fix" sounds like a third-gen rewrite of Speedball Baby's "Black Eyed Girl," and "One Sided Love" is Jon Spencer's "Two Kindsa Love" with a better hook. Still, when you consider what these guys were up to before this (hands: anyone pay cash for the last Chrome Cranks record?), a vast improvement.

-- Carly Carioli