Files For Audiophiles #38: Backyard Ambiance

My Review of Pressing Strings’ Forgotten 50 Performance in Berlin, MD — 06–28–2026

For the inaugural gig at Berlin, Maryland’s Forgotten 50 Distilling, both Pressing Strings and last Sunday’s opener Joe Esham alluded to the fact that they were settling in with each of their first song choices. Esham, a Weissenborn lap steel player whose twang reminded me of the seasons five and six version of “I’m A Survivor,” the theme song to Reba McEntire’s family comedy series — going with an instrumental called “Sunsets in Mayto” to start, as the headliners cracked the seal with a fresh tune, “Wheel Inside A Well.”

With “setting in” in mind, I also heard Pressing Strings’ singer Jordan Sokel sight the reasoning for no encore as there being a noise ordinance in the area. Looking back, that could’ve been why I noticed a dialed down performance from the band, especially in the second set. Drummer Justin Kruger almost exclusively hit his snare with a soft, casual flair during “Oh My My” while Sokel’s incoming guitar solo had a lazy jangle to it, which translated to Kruger not hitting his floor tom as hard and Sokel palm-muting a part he’d usually pick for the introduction of “Can’t Catches Up.” After Sokel flips his position switch down for a clearer solo and then back up after the lick on the rarely heard cover of Cream’s “Badge,” he clicks in a watery tone on his pedalboard just as he did in the bridge section of the previous song “Something Strong” and solos with it while bass player Nick Walker keeps the groove going.

Pressing Strings’ reggae styling comes in on “Alien Life” as Sokel’s palm-muting re-enters. This time sustaining a gritty fuzz solo with legato before the next chorus where he incorporates a slap percussive feel to the higher strings. Leaving one genre to go in this melting pot of a band, pulling the roots card by starting with a relaxing prelude to their song “Brave,” by playing Bobby Charles’ “I Must Be in A Good Place Now” where Kruger contributes to that relaxed feel by choosing to chain on his splashy ride cymbal. Doing the same a couple songs later as he bolsters and recognizes how much Sokel slowed down “Fold” to execute some elongated vocal notes and a complete vocal range run on the word “wine,” the crescendo to the trifecta that started over again when Kruger was banging on both sides of his ride for the bluesy jam of the otherwise relaxing following song “Down For You.” Even though it was dialed back, I don’t feel like anything was sonically lost for this very enjoyable 10/10 performance.