CONTENTS
TOMORROW'S BLUEGR ASS STARS
FESTIVAL GUIDE
Over the years, the band’s original dorm room jam sessions evolved into a decade plus on the road, from humble coffee shops to theaters, festivals, roadhouses and clubs across the country. Over time, those sounds and influences have crept more and more into the bluegrass beginnings of the Conrad Meyer Photography — at Washington's FoCo. band, morphing into the seasoned eclecticism of their newest release, a genre-straddling, lyrically deep, and danceable record, with a crew of collaborators bringing the best of Colorado acoustic, roots, and soul music together. When asked what is new with this record, Kinghorn doesn’t hesitate to answer. “To put it simply, I would say drums,” Kinghorn proclaimed. “We actually worked with Elephant Revival drummer Darren Garvey and have some original songs that incorporate percussion in that I'd say that would be the biggest difference from our previous records. It has been very exciting for us to branch out a little bit in that way.” “We're all very loyal to our bluegrass tradition,” he explained, “and after a certain amount of time, it started to feel like we're limiting ourselves just a touch by working within those confines. A lot of what I was trying to do when I was writing my portion of the record was to break away from that. What you find is that you come up with different rhythmic ideas when you're going to have some percussion involved, rather than the straight-ahead bluegrass feel. I think the new EP has a lot of different rhythmic stuff happening. It felt like we were taking down some of our own barriers – like those limitations were there, but didn't need to be, so we're just trying it out.” “It’s funny, we all get to play less, if that makes sense,” he continued. “What I mean is that I don't have to carry the rhythm as much. I can focus on singing, and I can actually accent the rhythm in different ways as the bluegrass guitar player. What I was really trying to affect were the subtleties there, because a snare drum hits the beats that the mandolin would normally hit. So, I’m thinking, how can I complement that in a different way? And Matt been adjusting to being a part of a real rhythm section.” “We’re all used to a guitar player playing the downbeat and the upbeat, and the bass 36
THE BLUEGRASS STANDARD