Joy Kills Sorrow combines the virtuoso musicianship of traditional bluegrass with songwriting that touches on contemporary life and love with humor, intelligence and wit. The bold, young, Boston-based string band keeps a foot firmly planted in bluegrass roots—the band's name is a play on the call letters of the Indiana radio station that broadcast the Monroe Brothers in the 1930s—while the quintet's influences from the worlds of jazz, pop, swing and rock are clearly felt in its polished arrangements.