At their worst, live recordings could be reclassified as an act of international terror -- flat, hollow money-grabs by greedy execs looking to cash in on a band's sudden stardom. At their best, live albums are a revelation, capable of transporting a listener to places inside an artist's music that are otherwise unavailable. The Longest Night, as an introduction to the expanding twelve-year catalog of Len's Lounge (coincidentally the finest name for an optometrist's office yet), lies somewhere in between those poles.

Class, musicianship and taste are the hallmarks of this Cincinnati roots-rock outfit, which features Annette Christianson on violin, Paul Cavins on bass, Katherine Monnig on drums and Jeff Roberson on vocals and guitars. (For these recordings from Jack Quinn's Emerald Ballroom in 2003, Ben Doepke of Humunculous was on Fender Rhodes electric piano and Hammond organ and Mick Stapleton of The Stapletons was on drums.) The large ensemble in this case means a bigger, richer sound -- not necessarily complex arrangements. Roberson's "mongrel Americana" is occasionally growling, sometimes grinding, and throughout the disc the band is relaxed and loose without sounding sloppy. From the foot-stomping "Tennessee by Moonlight" to the epic jam of "After Image", The Longest Night is a pleasant, unpretentious document of a sophisticated band rollicking in its element. It feels a bit like a night out that ends too soon.