Blue Highway in Lexington
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010This just in from from the Boston Bluegrass Union:
The BBU is pleased to welcome Blue Highway on Saturday, March 20th for a concert at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington , MA . We last presented the band in 2009 at Joe Val, but this time they’ll have the evening all to themselves for a big evening to celebrate the band’s 15th anniversary.
It is rare for a band to last for 15 years in any genre, even if it goes through various lineup changes. It is astonishing to keep the same five members throughout a career that has produced numerous awards. Blue Highway is the very paradigm of a modern bluegrass band: a truly self-contained ensemble that excels on every level.
Instrumentally, their sound is defined by the intricate interplay of eleven-time International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Dobro Player of the Year Rob Ickes, hard-driving banjo player Jason Burleson, and the rippling mandolin and fiddle of Shawn Lane . Vocally, bassist Wayne Taylor has one of the most soulful and identifiable voices in the music, which blends seamlessly with Lane’s pure tenor. Guitarist and vocalist Tim Stafford remains one of the most respected and admired flat pickers on the scene, contributing propulsive rhythm and nimble lead playing in addition to stirring lead and harmony vocals.
It is as songwriters, however, that Blue Highway have truly enlivened and extended bluegrass. All members contribute, from Burleson and Ickes’s jaw dropping instrumentals to the nuanced, poetic songs of Taylor , Lane, and Stafford . Of their last album of new material, 2008’s all-original Through the Windows of a Train, NPR’s Folk Alley said, “Through the Window of a Train covers such topics as war, the homeless and mortality – not typical fodder for bluegrass bands. Familiar topics also surface (trains, lost love, wanderlust), but they’re presented with new perspectives.”
To mark the band’s 15th anniversary, they have recently released Some Day, an anthology featuring previously released and new material, on Rounder Records. As their innumerable awards (including multiple IBMA awards, Grammy nominations, and a Dove award) attest, Blue Highway represent the pinnacle of expression in bluegrass, echoing back the timeless roots of the music while continuing to find new musical and lyrical contexts to explore.
Help Blue Highway celebrate fifteen years by visiting http://www.bluehighwayband.com/Pages/15Years.html
Blue Highway video from the 2009 Joe Val Bluegrass Festival – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdxiKChcrTo
