Esquire Music Awards - April 2008: Marah

Best Roots-Rock Band that Deserves Better than to be Called Roots Rock: Marah.  "We can live with the Springsteen comparisons, but Marah plays shows too powerful and immediate to deserve the semantic short shrift of the roots-rock label-- it suggests a fascination with the past when Marah seems more about making you feel as if your future's in jeopardy.  For more than a decade, Dave and Serge Bielanko have been America's best bar band, fueled by the intensity an arena band might muster playing a bar gig on a night off.  See them live and you'll return home with ears blown and a knot in your stomach: A pairing roots-rock has never quite perfected."