How’d you get together [as a band]?
Woody: Charles, Graham and myself were in Chapel Hill in school and real good buddies and the music kind of came out of that. And Mike and I are childhood acquaintances. He came in the band after that and we found Nicky four years ago. We juggled fiddle players for a while and then we found Nicky. He found us actually. Found him on the Internet. Now we’ve got him on lockdown in NC.
Nicky: Three years later, I’m taking them to my hometown of San Francisco this time.
Mike” It’s about time.
Nicky: We’re going to my house.
So you won the Emerging Artist last year. How has that changed anything? Do you feel like you’re blowing up?
Woody: I think … the top of the industry is in sight. We’re still oung, still got some years ahead of us to grow. I think we’re on a good trajectory. I think it’s made a lot more people aware of us, especially promoters. A lot of promoters are really skeptical about new bands. And trying to, back before we had a booking agency, trying to introduce yourself to a promoter and tell them you’re good … they know who’s good by who they’ve been told is good. It was cool to win that award and be recognized by the community of bluegrass, it opened up a lot of doors that way.
Who are you inspired by?
Graham: We’re all pretty inspired by the first generation bluegrass stuff. There’s a lot of great bands now that, you pick and choose things you like about different bands, things you want to incorporate into your show. Things you like … I’m inspired by all kinds of music, too. I think that’s one of the strengths of our band that we bring in parts of other types of music. We’re not afraid to at least try something and see if it’s going to work or not. I think we bring in parts of country type stuff and more like Americana-flavor, blues … I think we’re pretty unique.
There’s a lot of great bands coming out of NC lately, well always, but are there any you feel closely allied with? What do you think it is about NC that spurs all these great musicians.
Graham: Where we live in the Asheville, North Carolina area, that town has always been a center for creative thinking. There [are] a lot of artists and musicians and lately bluegrass has become popular again throughout the country and the world. I guess traditionally it was the old timers doing bluegrass where we were. And it seems like a lot of guys like us that are college age and stuff getting into bluegrass and starting bands. Charles even wrote a song about it, hinting at that. It’s just a place where people know they can live and be surrounded by other people doing the same thing. And Asheville … we talk about it all the time, geographically where it’s located in Western North Carolina, it’s a great place for a band to live and work because you can get to Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, within four hours. So you’re right in the middle of the heart of where bluegrass began. It makes sense that a lot of bands would live there, and if they didn’t start there, that they would move there. It seems like … people are moving there from other parts of the country because they know it’s a good place to work from as home base.
What do you think it is … you mentioned that bluegrass bands are younger and college kids are turning to bluegrass music. Why do you think that is? I know in Seattle, it’s old timey music for a lot of the kids that would’ve been in punk bands 10 years ago. What do you think that’s about?
Graham: I think a lot of it is how direct the music is, how it has opportunity to be normal, sit down in a chair, pull out your instrument and start playing with somebody, have a musical conversation right there without anything coming in between the two of you. And I think that’s something pretty attractive about acoustic and traditional music. At least for me that was one of the big things that impressed me about it—going to a festival and people I wouldn’t think twice about, or they me, just walking down the street you get out your instruments and start picking.
Charles: I think our society right now is so blasted with technology and the digital age, and that’s great. But I think maybe a backlash to that, people want something that’s real and organic ot remind them that we’re human beings that it’s something that comes from your heart and isn’t something that comes from a computer.
