Bluegrass Roadshow Talkshow Ep.01 W/ North Fork Crossing

Most bluegrass bands are stuck in the past—unless you’re these Montana-based storytellers, North Fork Crossing. They blend traditional roots with energetic jams and adventurous songwriting, creating a fresh take on a genre that’s been around for centuries. Find out how their journey from Montana fiddle camps to the national stage is reshaping bluegrass for a new generation. Three childhood friends, raised on Montana fiddle camps and inspired by legends like Tony Rice and Bill Monroe, share how their diverse musical influences—ranging from Neil Young to indie rock—fuel their innovative sound. They discuss the divide between traditional and progressive bluegrass and how modern bands can bridge it by exposing audiences to the roots while pushing boundaries. You’ll discover: how the band’s approach to songwriting is driven by personal stories of travel, heartbreak, and growth; the significance of community, camps, and festivals in nurturing bluegrass talent; and the art of blending voices and instruments to keep performances fresh and engaging. We break down the band’s dynamic live performances, the storytelling behind their debut album “Portland Rose,” and their plans for notable festivals and tours. If you’re a bluegrass fan curious about the genre's future or a new listener open to vibrant, authentic music, this episode is essential listening. It’s more than just notes—it's a movement rooted in tradition but soaring into the future. This conversation is packed with insights from a band that’s passionately carrying the torch for bluegrass—while adding their own bold flair. Perfect for musicians, festival organizers, and anyone who believes music should always evolve without losing its soul. Plus, they share stories like how a “Stir Fry Joe” sandwich inspired a catchy tune, and how Montana’s winter nights shape songwriting. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at a band on the rise, don’t miss this episode!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Howdy folks, thanks for tuning in to Bluegrass Roadshow. This is the first full-length interview that I've gotten the chance to conduct, so your support here today is greatly appreciated. I recently got the chance to sit down with Ryan Kelly and Silas Rhea, who play Mandolin and Fiddle for North Fork Crossing. This bosom-based band has just released their second studio album titled Portland Rose, which is one I've been enjoying so much that I decided to reach out and see what they had to say about it for themselves. In today's conversation, we go over the inception of the album, its inspirations and themes, as well as how the band got together, what the guys think of the current state of Bluegrass, and so much more. If you haven't gotten the chance to, please check out our website at Bluegrassroadshow.com where you can find more information regarding this episode, as well as in-depth blog posts and an extensive calendar where you can find your next show. Without further ado, let's get into the interview. North Fork Crossing. So I guess we'll uh get going. I've had the I've had the chance to listen to the album quite a few times over, especially since you know having the idea of doing this. I thought I uh better study up on it a little bit. Um definitely definitely enjoying it off the rip. Um thanks. I defin I guess we'll uh we'll start out. I was kind of curious. I was doing some reading uh just on you guys in general, and I had seen that uh I was reading something on the Bluegrass Standard. They I think they did an interview with you guys a few years back, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. I was checking that out. Then I happened to see that uh your guitarist and Ryan yourself uh originally met as kids at a fiddle camp.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

That's right. Yeah, we met at Montana Fiddle Camp and uh we're actually gearing up. I think fiddle camp starts like a week from the day. So some of us were gonna try and make it by, and then Kid is gonna be an instructor there for the second week of their camp this year.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Awesome, very cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

So yeah, that place has had a huge influence on us, and it it also happens to be what originally brought us together.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

That's awesome, and so that's called the Montana Fiddle Camp?

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Yep. Yeah, yeah, and I I grew up going to that as a kid too, and met Cade there.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

And did you also grow up in the Montana area as well, Silas?

SPEAKER_03 2:19

I did, yeah. I grew up in Helena.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Okay. Very cool.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Yeah, yeah, and Ryan's from here in Bozeman and Cade from Missoula.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Very cool. Um I did see um a few things that I was looking into that I thought were quite interesting. Um, and that was uh in particular to you, Silas. Um, getting into uh I saw that you were into also uh Calvin's fiddle camp early on as a kid. I was, yeah. So that's pretty cool. You uh um I guess I was kind of interested in that. Um, you know, it's a you know a little bit more traditional. Um, but uh what was it like coming up, uh kind of playing with Calvin and going to that camp for quite a few years?

SPEAKER_03 3:04

No, yeah, that had a huge impact on my playing um as a kid because I at the time I wasn't taking lessons or anything. Um so kind of the only instruction on the fiddle I was getting was these camps in the summer.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

Um and it it don't I don't know, I think uh like the Canadian fiddle tradition is like you know slightly different than it is down here. And so I think it playing with like all those people growing up definitely gave me a an interesting like approach and perspective on the fiddle that I wouldn't have necessarily got.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

And how far uh north is that in comparison to where you uh grew up at?

SPEAKER_03 3:44

You know, the at least Calvin's camp, I went to a couple of camps up in Canada, but um his camp is up in uh I think St. Edwards, Alberta. Okay it's a few hours north of Edmonton. That's what I was thinking. It's a good hall. Pretty good hall from here.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Absolutely. So that's cool that you were able out to get out and do those.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Yeah, no. Yeah, yeah. No, it was cool. My uh my grandma, she's a fiddle player, and so she uh she took me to all those camps when I was young.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Awesome. I love hearing those kind of things.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

I've been kind of thinking about something recently, and that kind of uh leads me into that thought is it seems to be um there's kind of a a divide right now, it seems, um, in a sense. I guess I don't want to say a large divide, but kind of between the traditional and the more progressive scene. Um, you know, at one time it seemed like the progressive scene was always kind of on the outskirts, and if you weren't, you know, playing traditional bluegrass, that wasn't bluegrass. Um, but now we've seen, you know, so many different variations and so many different bands um doing their thing. Um I know you guys grew up kind of in more of those traditional circles and uh going to those camps and and now kind of uh mixing both. You know, your music has kind of that old sound, but you guys know how to kind of get out there and jam and and kind of fit uh some some of the bills that people are looking for right now.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Yeah, yeah. It's uh the divide is interesting. And I I think a lot of the the old guys nowadays, I think you know a lot of it is like what Billy's doing and how he's bringing bluegrass to like such a big market and different people. Um I think they're kind of starting to a lot of the old guys are starting to see that and they're like, well, there you know, maybe this this new grass stuff isn't so bad. Um, you know, so I I think that that divide is getting better. There's still, you know, a little bit of uh, you know, button heads there.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

It's it's interesting to look at. I feel like I feel like there's uh, you know, bands in our realm and or just younger bands in general, there does seem like there is a like I guess if you're looking at at a bigger band who kind of does jam but also brings in traditional sides, I think that kind of branches out to the young bands and you kind of see where they lean towards. And like some bands are really lean into that heavy jam grass scene, and it's and you know, people love it and come out and see it, but you know, the people that are wanting the traditional music, you know, it's it might be missing some of that. And then there's I feel like we lean slightly more to the traditional side and have like some folk inspiration and stuff. Um, but we also dabble in in the jamming. So there is, it's interesting like playing these festivals with these bands because there's you see the you see the extremes on either end of you know, like a a trad grass band and like you know, like in the same band of like what the Earls of Leicester were doing. And then you see like these crazy jam bands that it's like a jam band that happens to be playing bluegrass instruments. And uh I don't know, it's I think the cool part about it is there's opportunity where people that are just into one side of it get exposed to the other and maybe can find a love for that or pique their interest and they start looking back, they'll see Billy Strings, but then they'll see Tony Rice and the bluegrass album band and kind of work down the rabbit hole and they might get bit by the bit by the bluegrass bug, the more trad stuff.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

I think that's definitely a great way of looking at it. I think some of these guys, obviously, Billy kind of being at the top of the game right now, um, and everybody else in between is definitely opening up a lot of doors for bluegrass music and bringing in uh people far and wide. And I'm I'm seeing that myself as, you know, more and more people, like you said, are especially digging into, you know, Tony Rice. And um I think you have Billy kind of giving a lot of homage to these guys by playing their songs and even, you know, mentioning where they come from on stage. And I think that education is always a good thing to to kind of engage the listener a bit more. You know, a lot of these people coming out to these big concerts might have just, you know, heard the guy on the radio or something like that. Yeah, totally. On the flip side, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Oh, I was just gonna say it's fun, it's funny to see, depending on what kind of crowd we're playing to. If I'm sometimes we uh we'll play a song and we'll say, All right, here's a song we learned from the new Kentucky Colonels. And if you're playing to a more trad scene, you know, people perk up and they're like, oh nice. And then a lot of these younger crowds are like whatnot, they're like, What did he say?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's good that you guys are able are able to have that inspiration and you know where this music comes from and able to keep that alive while making your own stuff as well.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Yeah, I think it's cool to, you know, the opportunities like Silas at that Canadian Fiddle Camp and us um going to the Montana Fiddle Camp. We were exposed to like that early music and where it comes from at a young age. And even going back now that we're like playing in a bluegrass band, I feel like I've still just like it's almost the more you learn about where these songs came from, the less you know. It's it's kind of kind of endless, and there's so many tunes and so many players and styles, and and really it's a I think it's a cool, a cool part of kind of history and music history that you can dive into and and really learn a lot of good stuff from the from kind of the greats and you know, yeah, take it into our into our music, into our writing, and try and try and keep keep sharing this style of music.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Absolutely. I think I completely agree with you. I mean, I'm you mentioned the bluegrass bug bug earlier. I I fully got bit by that thing a few years back. I mean, I grew up in Kentucky and always was around bluegrass music, but you know, never quite followed it and um until I got a little bit older and graduated high school and and figured out what I liked. And yeah, like you said, once you figure one thing out, it just leads to more. You know, the the the rabbit hole just uh gets bigger the deeper you go down it.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Oh yeah. When I was when I was young, my two older siblings that kind of got us involved with Montana Fiddle Camp. They were contest fiddle players. And my dad, he kind of got bitten by the bug, and he liked Tony Rice and David Grisman and whatnot. But he would play these Allison Krauss Union Station CDs in the car. And when I was a little kid, I would be like, Dad, you gotta turn that off. I could not stand it. I was like, what are we listening to? And then now we fast fast forward 20 years or whatever, and I'm like, hey, you got those CDs lying around somewhere?

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Oh, I couldn't respond.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

I mean, it's like something that a lot of people maybe are exposed to, but then it does like it really does kind of get you. It gets in your blood, and you're like, oh, I gotta, I gotta dive into this.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Yeah, it's it's like a drug. And when it gets you and when it clicks, it clicks real good.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Yeah, it's cool. I feel like bluegrass has showed me almost the way I learned to love bluegrass. It's given me a good approach to listening to other music, you know, because I did have like I didn't really like bluegrass when I was a kid. And then there's stuff that I thought I didn't like, and I've kind of, you know, tried to scratch beneath the surface of what music is out there, and I think it's cool to, you know, just not read not judge a book by a cover and in all genres of music, but I think I kind of learned that from bluegrass because it was this thing I thought I hated had written off, and then all of a sudden it's consumed my life, and I'm like, this is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

That's awesome. I uh I actually have a question written down here that's perfect for that. And uh I was kind of curious uh maybe what you guys listen to outside of Bluegrass, what some of your uh inspirations are there.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Oh yeah. Man, that's a that's a tough question. I feel like I bounce bounce around a ton. I mean what have I been listening to recently? I guess uh Silas and I both really are really love Neil Young and like kind of a lot of that generation of like singer-songwriter stuff, uh Bob Dylan. I've been liking there's this band, I think they're out of New York, they're called the Lemon Twigs, they're like this kind of 60s, like sun-soaked sound rock band, but they're making this music right now and they've got like these crazy intricate harmonies and chord progressions. That's kind of been fascinating me. And then dip my dip my toe in like the the indie music world a little bit. I think like MJ Lenderman's kind of in a similar vein of like Neil Young, like just writing some really crazy artistic lyrics that are hard to decipher but are fun to listen to, and cool, just like loud rock music almost. But I think we all bounce around kind of all over, like in the van. We're like, we'll be listening to Buck Owens and then listen to Bluegrass for a while. This last trip we we ripped through a couple Cat Stevens records.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Yeah, I mean, yeah, every we listen to everything in the van. Fish, EDM.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Oh yeah, our manager Max is a huge, huge jam band. Okay, and like he's he's got us all listening to and some of us we like it more than others, and some of us put up with it, but he loves putting on like a fish live show or like widespread panic or like um what's the band, like lettuce and like these newer newer jam bands of disco biscuits, which a lot of that stuff is like it's really cool and impressive, and sometimes that is like I don't even know how to approach it, but it's but it's cool. There's so many different styles of music and like all these people that have found their their kind of niche and like then the in a similar way how we've dug into bluegrass music and are trying to learn learn that style, you know. All these other bands have dug into these songwriters that have been around and like and their other styles of music, whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, I I've I think right now, you know, it's kind of a crazy time to be alive, but in terms of music, man, we're we're in a an era um that has a lot of great stuff coming out, and I also think kind of a great resurgence of music, too. You know, bluegrass is seemingly more popular than it maybe has ever been. You know, I'm I wasn't obviously alive in past generations, but um, it seems to me like uh the following that are coming out to some of these bluegrass shows, you know, even even us smaller acts um that are out there, you know, seem to be getting good crowds and um everybody's really enjoying it. So I think we're we're in a good time for uh music, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

No, definitely. I think it's uh there's with all like new new things with new generations, you know, whatever it might be, we're kind of we kind of grew up in a big change of how people consume music, and I think there's great parts of it, and there's maybe some parts of it that are not as good, but it is it's pretty incredible the like the access that we have, you know. You just type it, type it in, it's at your fingertips. Pretty much any music that's ever been recorded. Yeah, I mean, uh it's punch in and fine, you know. It's not like you have to like I remember growing up, you either had to like get get a CD or you had to buy each song, you know, they're like 99 cents on Apple Apple Music on your iPod. And so it's like I think there's there's a cool, there's a really cool side of it where you have like immediate access to all music. And then I think there's maybe the flip side of it is it's interesting, like almost taking that for granted, you know, like when you used to have to buy the record or the CD or even the individual song, you could kind of get to know those songs and albums a little more because you were limited on what you had to listen to. So I think some of those old bluegrassers, they had like a couple, a couple records that they could slow down and learn the songs on, and they would just learn it, you know, they'd learn a record front and back. And yep. It's just it's an interesting change, but I think a lot of it, I mean it's it's pretty incredible how how lucky we are to just have the crazy access to music.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

And it's all it's all it's all right at our fingertips. You can get onto uh, you know, sites like Internet Archive and things like that, and you know, find old shows going back, you know, some of these Grateful Dead shows back into the 60s and things like that. I know. Um and also kind of with bluegrass music too, like you said, these guys got uh time to sit down and and learn these songs. And I think um, you know, that's kind of the next evolution past, you know, the word of mouth when these songs were written and traditional and passed on. Um, you know, we kind of got into all right, well, records and then CDs, and you know, things were limited. You only heard it on the radio whenever it came on, so you had to listen to it so you could try to remember what that lick sounded like, so you could try doing it, you know, things like that. And I think that's why uh if you kind of look back maybe into like the 80s and 90s in Bluegrass, you see a lot of these bands doing a lot of the same tunes or different variations of the same tune because you know the the the access wasn't as wide as it as it quite is today.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Yeah, like going way back even Silas and our banner player Matt and I, we like we like playing. They're they're definitely know a lot more of the tunes than I do, but we like going to like an old time jam and learning those songs, and those are kind of fun. They're like stepping back into in time because a lot of times on maybe only one person knows the the tune and you kind of learn it on the ply and everybody's listening, and all of a sudden you got you know ten ten fiddlers and a couple guitar players and banjo players that just learned a song and they're playing it for the next 10 minutes going around, and then everybody walks away and they might have learned five new tunes, and by the next day they might only remember one of them. But it's it's kind it's cool that stuff like that still exists. And then the flip side is now I can record a Tony Rice lick on my phone and then put it in the app and slow it way down note by note, and you know, really decipher and hear what what he was playing and how he was doing it. Sure is great, a great resource. And I think it's why you see so many like young guitar players that can just like flat pick the hell out of these two.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Man, it's crazy right now.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Yeah, there's like there's some monster players just everywhere. I feel like I'm always caught on my heels, like, oh, I gotta, I gotta practice.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

What are we doing? Yeah, you gotta keep up with it, or else, you know, uh, you'll fall behind. These guys are going quick.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

They are.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

That being said, um, what's the you know, uh Montana bluegrass scene like today? And you know, what are some uh I guess some of your other local peers that you guys might pick with?

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Yeah, um, so I'd say the the local scene, especially here in Bozeman, has been growing a lot. Yeah, it's cool to see. Like there's uh there's four, I think four different jams, like public jams that happen every week here in town. And there's uh lots of young young people getting into it these days, which is really cool to see. Um, and I I think I it's gotten a lot better since even when I was a kid growing up in Helena. There was, you know, I I grew up going to the jam there, and um, it was me and a bunch of old guys.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

And as usual. Yeah, stylus' first band, I think he was 50 years younger than the other members.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

I was in high school and the rest of them were in their 60s.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

And and and that shows in the music though. You know, listening to this album, that the fiddle licks that that you've gotten in on it are exceptional. Um, and you know how to how to slow things down or pick it back up. So hats off to those guys for keeping you going.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Yeah, thank you. But yeah, there's also a lot of a lot of great bands coming up in Montana and um, you know, all sorts of genres, but there's quite a few other bluegrass bands that we we hang out with here in Montana. Yeah, there's there's some great great pickers.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

I mean, there's uh we're we're pretty good friends with um these guys that play with our friend Abby Webster, and she has a band it's called Abby Webster in her imaginary band. But the guys in those band in her band play with like tons of different groups, and some of them travel all over with this band, Banfire, and and then they have like a couple like pickup gigs that they do with this band called Scratch and Gravel. And but they're like, you know, they're playing all these different these indie tunes, these folk songs and stuff, but then then you get a you get a dreadnought in their hand and and a banjo or whatever it might be. And there's some there's some really great pickers here, and it's fun to, you know, have them over or go meet at the at the jam down at the cider house or wherever it might be that night and and and pick. And I think it's cool to have that community close 'cause it's you know it's Pushing you to to learn new songs, and you got people bringing in different influence from whoever they're listening to. You know, it's like Xander and I were talking the other day. He'd been listening a lot to like Herschel Sizemore, Smanlin playing, and I'd been listening to a lot of like Rolling White, and we're kind of like trading licks and and like listening to the different styles. And so it's the community, I think, overall is good. That's just one example, but there's lots of lots of great pickers around here.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

That's awesome. I I definitely have been noticing from afar. Um, like I said earlier, I grew up down in Kentucky, but I currently reside in Michigan. Um, that being said, uh, you know, um I'm I see that there's a bit of uh good bluegrass going on in Montana. I'm seeing uh more and more festivals pop up. I have a little thing on my website that I do. It's kind of like a calendar. Um I've got you guys on there and plenty of other bands, but there's about uh 120 different bluegrass acts, uh, you know, a little bit of a little mix in there, some jam, a little couple of cool reggae guys, things I appreciate, but uh people I feel like in the bluegrass scene that you know could could deserve a little spotlight. And you know, everybody knows where if Billy Strings is playing next, right? But it's hard to keep track with all of these. So I put together a little calendar um along with a lot of festivals and and camps so people can go on there and just look by state or by date and and find out what's kind of going on near them. And I've noticed the amount of stuff going on in Montana this summer seems to be uh quite a bit, seems to be a good place if you like bluegrass music.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yeah, we're happy to be a small part of it. You know, we've got we're just down the road from like a pretty pretty legendary venue, Pine Creek Logs, that gets a lot of big acts in for, you know, if you look at the capacity of the venue, sometimes you're like, man, that's that that band's playing there. Like I've thought that the crockets playing there or whatever. Yeah. But it's just, I mean, it's really it's like at the gateway of Yellowstone National Park, and it's right on the Yellowstone River. It's beautiful. And we uh we actually have the last couple years attended, and then now we're hosting the Creekside Revival Festival of Pine Creek, and we're we were, you know, kind of had a little meeting of the mimes and we're talking about the bands and stuff, you know, getting the bands that could return to come back and what new bands we wanted to come. And so I think it's gonna be cool to get a lot of a lot of these bands from from all over out east.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

And you guys got a good lineup quite there for that. That's uh fun.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

And I you know, I hope it's opportunity where a lot of those bands come to Montana and then and then keep coming back because there's definitely there's a market. I think people people really like this style of music and and it's uh Montana provides a pretty good could good backdrop for uh for a little festival or a concert. Absolutely. We're about ten hours from Denver and 10 hours from Seattle. Sure. But but we're it's not too bad. We've just been putting a lot of miles on.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

I know how that goes. Well, speaking of putting a lot of miles on, um the first song on the album, I think kind of uh kind of fits that bill a little bit, you know. Kind of seemed to me I was talking about uh, you know, constantly being in motion and working every day, kind of chasing your dreams, doing this music thing. Yeah. I thought there was a couple good lyrics, and there's ones uh mentioned, you know, always wanting to do this since a child, and that's kind of something we've talked about. You guys obviously been doing this uh since you were kids.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

Um I guess we'll Cade wrote that one, and I think, you know, at Fiddle Camp specifically, where like these touring musicians are like almost taking one or two weeks off of the road to come and sit down with us and teach us, you know, we really started to look up to them and and what they were doing. And so I think Cade kind of maybe got some in for inspiration, you know, from looking at our heroes, you know, and they're sharing their music all over and and that song's kind of a little a little tribute. I might be putting words in his mouth, but it's kind of a tribute to, you know, where we are doing what what we want to be doing, and it's a cool, really cool opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Absolutely. And you guys came together originally in 2021, right? That's right, yeah. And so how did uh kind of everybody else fall into place? I know I read there on the Bluegrass Standard how you and Cade kind of met back up together, but how did everybody else come in and play?

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Yeah, so um originally the band was Cade and I, and then his sister, uh Grace Slayden, played fiddle, and we were just kind of getting together playing some tunes, and our friend Cole Homan was playing some guitar. Cade even played some Dobro there for a while, and uh we ended up meeting our bass player. I think the infamous string dusters were playing in Bozeman or out at Pine Creek or somewhere. And Rabbi, our bass player, had grown up playing bass and like jazz band and stuff, and then came here to college and hadn't really played. And I had just bought an upright because it was like, oh, I guess maybe I'll play upright and we'll figure out who's gonna play what, but we wanted to have a band, so I had just bought an upright and they met and Raby was like, Oh, I play bass, and we kind of were like, Oh, you should come over and jam. And so then he came and jammed, and we're like, You want to be in the band? And he was like, I need a bass, and so I just sold him that bass that night. And uh, and then Grace ended up moving, and so that's when we got Silas involved. Silas is Silas is a little bit of a local legend on the fit fiddle when it comes to playing with other bands. He's always he's always busy. Everybody's asking, can you come play this gig? Can you play this gig? And so we kind of joked that we stole Silas from his other 12 bands.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

That's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Yeah, and then uh our banjo player and then our manager and Rabbi all played Ultimate Frisbee at MSU, and uh, which that was a cool community of them because I think our first gig was mostly just Ultimate Frisbee, you know, like players and stuff that were like, oh, Rabbi's in a band, yeah, we'll go. So our first gig was kind of nuts. We're like, why is there people here? This is crazy. But they they all met there and and Matt grew up playing like claw hammer banjo and whatnot, and was kind of interested in getting into playing Scrub Styler Three Finger, and uh he came and tried out, and we were like, Oh yeah, this could be cool, you know. And then we kind of did another practice, and Matt showed up and he like knew all our tunes top to bottom, and he was ready to roll, and we're like, dude, you're in.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

And now we're just trying to keep up with him because he practices the most out of all of us who can keep up.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

But yeah, and then and then uh Max, our manager, we couldn't do this without him. He's uh he was uh ultimate Prisbee and roommates with Rabi in college, and and uh yeah, he kind of just started hanging around when we were doing band stuff and like helped sell tickets at the doors to our local shows and was selling merch and then all of a sudden it's like he's ordering t-shirts for us and doing emails and and so we he's been with us kind of from the beginning too. And he really makes the helps make the gears turn. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

I love to hear that it's a well-old machine. You guys are a steam locomotive rolling down the tracks, as he'd say on today's Yeah. Seems like the album has a a bit of some themes to it, listen listening to it top to bottom. Um one of one of those, you know, obviously being trains with the with the title track, but you know, traveling in general. And then I think there's a bit of like, you know, a little sadness to it. There's kind of maybe some stories of you know heartbreak or maybe even loss, death, depending on how you interpret it. Um, I know uh Cade wrote a good chunk of these, I think, looking at the the credits, but I know you guys uh had some some parts in there as well. Um there any particular inspirations that came for the album in general? Like uh when you guys sat down and try to try to come up with an album, you know, uh what's that look like?

SPEAKER_02 30:37

You know, this one kind of the way it it shaked out was was, you know, Cade wrote most of these songs, and I think it was just kind of a little product of what the I guess maybe the change we were all kind of experiencing as the band grew and as we started traveling more and spending more time away from home and loved ones, and and uh I think it's reflected in our in those songs that Cade wrote. And then the one song I wrote on there, Ramble and Run, a little bit of a little bit of a heartbreak tune that has there's some there's some truth in that song somewhere about a previous relationship that I won't I won't get too much into detail on, but uh yeah, I think it kind of ended up working out good because Cade songs, a lot of them are about being away from home and then and then you know that that pairs good with with heartbreak and loss, and I think that's that's a couple of the key ingredients to a good bluegrass album. A little bit of heartbreak, maybe a little bit of travel. I'm trying to think what we missed out.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

I just decided to throw in a goofy song about a sandwich just to lighten the movie. Oh, yeah, sure fried your own.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

That's something Silas wrote that one. We wrote that we uh Silas and I oh I think we kind of wrote the hook when we were we were at Fiddle Camp and we were assigned the project to play some ripping bluegrass for a corn shucking contest. And we were running down the hill, and Silas had this idea stuck in his head from I should let Silas tell the story about the sandwich. But we're running down the hill singing this stir fry joe. But Silas Silas is the inventor of the stir-fry joe sandwich.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Okay, and this is cool because I did, in fact, uh write a note about stir fried Joe. You know, I saw Silas wrote it. Um, it's kicked off pretty hard by the banjo, and then Silas comes in fast as hell, sawing on that fiddle, and then everyone else kind of joins in. Um you talk about writing, you know, a bit of it there at that fiddle camp. Um, I guess I'll I'll let Silas tell tell about the stir fried joe, but also let me know uh how you go about writing an instrumental. Um, I think it's always interesting.

SPEAKER_03 33:08

Yeah. Um, yeah, so I wrote a fiddle camp and I don't know, the I guess you can call it the inspiration for it came like in the the lunch line. It was uh it was like leftover day, and there were I was kind of late going through the line, so there wasn't much left. And um there was like some hamburger buns and some stir-fry left. And uh so I just put the stir fry right on the hamburger bun. And I I walked outside and sat down next to Kate, and he said, he said, What the hell is that? And that's when I said, It's a it's a stir-fry joe. Like a sloppy joe. Sure. So that's where it kept came from. And so that's kind of uh the tag kind of got stuck in our head. It's like, what the hell is that? What the hell is that? What the hell is that? It's a stir-fry joe. Um, and so that's where like the original idea came from. And I just kind of like ran with that.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

We were like joking around playing that, I think, or Silas was like he learned a little melody to the dumb song we were singing in our head. And then Silas with his wonderful mind decided to write a bit of a is it crooked? It's yeah, it's kind of A part to that melody. Yeah. So this song was really fun, and and maybe it's like type two fun where it's fun once we figured it out. But in the moment, you know, we're like trying to learn this song and it's crooked, and but yeah, I think it's kind of come to fruition, and it's like, you know, the crowds that we play for seem to love it, and it gets people moving and totally.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

Yeah, I think I was that week at Fiddle Cant, I had had been learning a bunch of like kind of weird old time tunes that were crooked and kind of you know outside the box. And and so I I wanted to try to write something like that, like the stuff I was had been learning, and that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Yeah, I I appreciated that one. Um I saw that also uh you guys had a co-write on uh the album, I think, there on Suzanne with uh Harley Allen, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Yeah, so that's a that's an older song. Um older song written by Harley Allen.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah, um what album is that on?

SPEAKER_03 35:21

It's I think the album's called Suzanne. It's Harley Allen and Mike Lilly. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

Killer Killer album if you're looking for some old stuff to dig into.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Yeah. I'm getting was it 60s? So maybe I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

So Suzanne's actually a cover of that.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Yeah, that's the one cover on the album.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Very cool. Okay. I I I haven't heard that one. I f but maybe I have, you know, when I was listening to it, I felt right at home, and I and that's one of my favorites on there. So maybe I have heard it through the years and uh just didn't click on me. But yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

A couple people tell us they're like, they're like, man, there's something about that song. It's just like we really love it. And I think that's why we decided to throw it on there, because we kind of felt this connection to it after learning it as a cover, you know. And yeah, it's there's something about that song. It's just a it's just a good tune.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

And it fits the album very well, too, I think.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

Yeah, I think so. I think it fits our our group well. Yeah. We liked it so much we named our uh named our van Suzanne.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Yeah, our 2011 Chevy Express is has the name Suzanne the Van. Suzanne the Van. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

I know Ryan, you mentioned that uh ramble and run. That was also another favorite of mine. I think uh any young man out there going through life can probably relate to a story kind of like that.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

So yeah, I mean the that song it if you listen to the lyrics, it pretty much spells it out for you. But it's kind of uh I think being a young man, you know, you're trying to figure out the world and you're trying to trying to learn, but maybe you have some pride and stuff and think you have have have it all figured out. And and I think that was that song came from experience of you know, essentially kind of losing the girl and then realizing after the fact, you know, I wasn't as as wise as I had, you know, maybe thought I was, and kind of realized the the person the person that I had after, and you know, it's kind of too late. And I think that's part of I mean it probably applies to anybody, but a young man's life, you know, you're growing up, you think you got it figured out, and then sometimes you get you get hit with a a good realization that you know you're maybe maybe not quite as quite as great as as you think you are and you still have stuff to learn. And sure. So I think there is I like to sing that like I see that song not as much as just like a pure heartbreak sad tune. I think there is some there's kind of some hope in that of uh you know holding on to people that are important to you in the future when you know as you grow up and get wiser.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Absolutely. I th you know I think like you said, a lot of it's definitely a a tune that young men can relate to. And if you can't relate to it, you're probably a lucky man, then I I'd say, you know. Yeah. No, I think so. Another two of mine uh that kind of stuck out. I guess if I had to pick two, I would say my top two songs off the album, hard to say top one, would be The Ghosts of the Night and The Snowy Afternoon. Um funny enough, I think, you know, they're both obviously kind of uh winter songs. You know, the ghost of the night kind of uh kind of tells a story of a gentleman uh succumbing kind of to the snow, you know, and being out in the weather and and why he was out there. Um and we kind of talked about that earlier. You guys mentioned getting some snow. I actually live up in the upper peninsula of Michigan, uh not too far from the Canadian border. So I know what it's like being up north and uh winters being long. How do you guys kind of keep things going as a band and as a as a scene out there in Montana during some of these long winter months?

SPEAKER_03 39:17

Yeah, it definitely slows things slow down a little bit out here, but I don't know. Everyone, everyone that lives out here, they you know, they live here, most of them live here because they like the snow.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

Yeah, it's almost it's almost interesting to where so we live in like a in a real ski town, Bozeman. We've got uh big sky ski area and bridge of wool. And so there's honestly like the slow parts of the season are almost kind of like late fall and early spring. But you know, during the ski season, people are bundled up and they're getting outside anyway, and then you know, skiing is skiing is kind of a party, and people are you know, what are we gonna do after the ski day? And so there's there's always there's always something going on, you know, whether it's a jam or a concert or show to go to. And uh yeah, but it does get it does get a little treacherous. The roads get pretty bad, like traveling out of Bozeman in the winter can be kind of a pain. And we got some good studded snow tires. We had a more mild winter this year, and we were like constantly like, should we take the snow tires off? Should we leave them on? And I don't think we ever made the right choice on it, but made a marathon too. The winter up here I think had definitely has effects on like Cade songwriting and and whatnot. Like it when it gets real soft in and it's snowing for for days on end, you know, it can be a little a little gray or dreary almost and put you into a a state of mind where some songs like that might come out. Sure. So I think yeah, Cade wrote both those songs. I'd love to I need to ask him more about you know what inspired him. But Cade's Cade's kind of crazy with his songwriting. He'll like sit down and spit out a song, like he'll just he just has it in his head and he'll you know be running for the guitar to go, oh I gotta get this out and write it down.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

I think that's uh a lot of good songwriters just oftentimes uh gotta get that out of them. I in fact was uh the last day or two I've been slowly picking at this uh old uh J.D. Crow documentary, and uh his sister was telling, telling stories of them growing up, and it'd be two o'clock in the morning, and he'd say he'd he'd wake up from a dream or from sleeping and have a lick in his head that he had to figure out, and he'd pick his banjo up right away, and his thoughts would come in there yelling at him, you know. So I think it's it's cool to have that ability in you, you know, just whenever you get you gotta get it out, you gotta get it out.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Yeah. No, it's really cool to see Cade's like writing process. I've only had a couple glimpses into it because it it happened so so fast with him. And I don't know how long it takes while it's like in his head and brewing, but I've got to sit down with him. On our first album, there's a couple songs that I kind of had like halfway written, and him and I wrote like finished those songs together. It's really fun to see how he I don't know, he's got he's got a cool way with words and and chords and strings it together. It's something I'm trying to trying to figure out.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

That's awesome. I'm glad you guys can all uh you know, able to learn from each other. I think uh that kind of makes me think of I was I was reading uh your guys' just band description overall on the website, and uh I don't know who wrote that, but it's pretty good, well written. And uh he mentioned timeless fiddle tunes, which I couldn't agree more. Uh Silas crushing it on that thing. Um I think you guys do a do a great job of of blending your sounds together. Um, definitely on this record. Um, you know, I haven't gotten the chance to see you guys live, but I've caught in uh quite a bit of you know your stuff I see on social medias and things that get posted around online. So uh I think you guys do a great job of of blending that together and and also making sure that everyone kind of gets a spotlight and gets a chance to be seen. Um how do you kind of make sure you're doing that and how that flow is moving, especially when you're performing a live show?

SPEAKER_02 43:31

Yeah. I mean, one cool thing is being in a band, a five-piece band where three of us sing, that keeps it keeps things really exciting. Cause you know, we're not we're not all drawn to the same, you know, when we're bringing a cover to the band or or writing a new song. I think we have some different styles and the band, you know, over the last couple of years has really learned to like, you know, if it's a song I sing, we kind of maybe slip into this different kind of groove and And then Cade songs, they have this, they kind of have their sound. And Silas, Silas sings like a lot of these old bluegrass tunes, like just sings the hell out of them. And and so that's I think that creates a cool space where just having different lead singers and then the harmonies kind of follow that. And then as far as a band, we kind of just try and try and play to the song as best we can. And thankfully with bluegrass music, a lot of it is, you know, there's no there's no drummer in bluegrass, and so it gives you the opportunity where you can trade off turns of who's kind of in charge of the rhythm, that train beat, you know, going forward, and that allows other people to step up and and fill or take their solo and get the spotlight. And I guess it's something over the last couple years that has kind of naturally just worked itself out. Like it's not always like, here's a song I wrote, it needs a banjo kick, and it needs this. It's like, you know, we'll play a new song and and like, oh, let's try a fiddle kick. And it's like, oh, let's try a banjo, and then, you know, Matt Hickey, he'll he'll have the banjo kick kind of figured, and we're like, oh yeah, that's gonna be this will be a good one to kind of feature that, or you know, whatever it might be. It's fun just just to have the five of us to bounce ideas off and and never really say no to an idea unless it doesn't work, you know. We'll kind of give everything a shot before we uh before we decide to go a different route.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

I I definitely uh appreciate you giving a little insight there. I think it's cool and uh I like I like seeing you guys perform there. I uh I had to even for myself go take a look at the music credits when I was listening to the songs because I I I could uh you know I could hear you know all three of those voices coming through and just trying to decipher who was who, but looking at the credits there. So getting a chance to talk to you guys is good too. Uh putting some you know names to the to the sounds on there.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

This album's pretty get pretty fun. It's like we've a lot of these songs we've been playing live for a while just because we like kind of testing songs out on the road. And a lot of the songs that Cade writes, we're like, dude, we gotta play that. Like he's got a new song that I'm guessing will make it on the third album. Hopefully we can get around to recording that. But like every every time we're writing a set list, I'm like, oh, we're gonna have to play that one again. I like that song. So it's it's fun to like just just play these songs and get to know them, and then yeah, getting in the studio and getting a chance to record them was was a real treat.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

Being sell with the album, how did you guys come about uh titling it Portland Rose? I know uh you know Portland Rose is uh an old passenger train uh that used to run across uh your guys' kind of neck of the woods out there. Um and I think personally listening to the record, it almost makes you feel like you're riding a train in in some kind of way, you know, uh kind of takes you to the to the mountain job, mountaintops with like, you know, there's some speedy jams in there and it reaches some some high crescendos, and then you kind of come back down, I guess you say the river valley, and it's like uh, you know, you got Silas just drawing that fiddle out, making it cry, and some of those emotional lyrics. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

I think I think I don't know if I can say it better than what you just did, but we kind of I think we kind of, whether it was subconsciously or, you know, actually talking about it, we kind of thought like, you know, if you looked at like the theme of the whole album and and kind of that idea, you know, it's there's a lot of that train and travel and whatnot. And so I I think even if you look at just Portland Rose, that song, it almost pulls you in and out of that kind of same feeling like you were talking about. And it kind of, I don't know, we thought it rolled off the tongue and we were excited about um having our friend Sarah make the art for it. And we just thought it was kind of a good fit overall for the the general vibe that the album was kind of that we got. I think we hadn't decided until we'd recorded all of it, and then once it was recorded, we were kind of in there and we're like, yeah, I think this is this is probably the only the only way we could. I think that was like the only name we really were like, oh yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

Now, is the Portland Rose uh you know, have anything historical kind of uh local to you guys, or is it something you've seen along the road?

SPEAKER_02 48:39

And I think Kid looked it up and was like telling the band about it. Okay. Um the closest, I guess, connection directly to the band is our banjo player Matt grew up um in Portland. And so that was kind of a fun little little tie. We were actually just playing in Portland last weekend and we were walking over to a coffee shop and there was like the I think it was like kind of a manhole cover, like a yeah, it was like the manhole cover of of the in the middle of the street, and it had had Portland Rose on it, and like, you know, the flowers there. And then we look up and the neighbors out in their front yard, they've got these Portland roses growing. That's all so yeah, it was this I think it ties into Hickey a little bit, and then Cade's curiosity for like those old trains and cool, yeah. I think he was maybe out there just looking for some inspiration on, you know, it is kind of in our neck of the woods, and it is deal, you know, we like playing songs about trains, and that falls a lot in the bluegrass. And so I think Cade's curiosity kind of sparked it, and and then uh that song song came out of that and turned into the album as well.

SPEAKER_01 49:53

No, that's awesome. I th well I think it fits it well. I mean, I I I know I got to looking up what what exactly the Portland Rose looked like, and they had some beautiful artwork on that old train, and yeah, fits the the beautifulness of the album, that's for sure. Now, if I'm not mistaken, did I read somewhere that uh um that the the inspiration for the name of the band that came from Cade and his family?

SPEAKER_02 50:21

Yeah, he uh Cade grew up outside of Missoula Little Ways on the Blackfoot River, and his dad's a fly fishing guide, and Cade spent like countless hours fishing those creeks and rivers surrounding him. And the the North Fork of the Blackfoot, I think, is a really special spot to Cade and his family, and and uh yeah, there's this fly fishing lodge up there when you're driving kind of out in the sticks and there's this big sign that says the North Fork Crossing right before you go over a bridge. And uh yeah, Cade Cade brought that to the band. We were wondering what we were gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 51:05

I like that. That's a good homage to the to the family and keeping it local there. It's a it it rolls off the tongue too. I mean it it fits and it it works well. Guys did good there.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Yeah, we like it. It's like I think it's kind of one of the things where you know, sometimes it gets like mispronounced for people North North Folk or whatever, but people are always asking like what river it's about or where it came from, and and uh you know a lot of like local people they'll just call us North Fork, which is kind of fun. And um, yeah, we've we've ended up really liking liking the name.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

That's cool. I uh I had written down here, I want to throw it back to earlier in the conversation we were talking about Silas and uh going up to Calvin's camp. Hi, and uh through my through my research I seen that Calvin actually wrote a uh song for you. I was curious if you guys ever break that out anytime.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

You know, we don't, but how do you say that? We really we really ought to play that one.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

That's a good one. You want to tell me about it? I didn't even know about it.

SPEAKER_03 52:16

Yeah, so I uh I don't know, yeah, I grew up going there and then um when I was younger, had ended up having some health issues um and wasn't able to make it to camp for a couple years. And uh and so he he wrote me uh wrote me that tune. And uh I uh and he kind of surprised me with it. Um or I went up to like see a concert and he uh invited a bunch of my friends from the fiddle camp up on stage with him and they all all played it for me. There's uh it was very special.

SPEAKER_01 52:50

Is that uh is that the one that he did uh for like uh I don't know if it was a benefit, but I is I saw some videos online of a bunch of young kids up there playing it with him. I thought that might be the one.

SPEAKER_03 53:01

Yeah, I think uh think that was the show that there's a YouTube video of it.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 53:07

Very cool, man.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

You gotta dig in, man.

SPEAKER_03 53:13

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's a it's a cool tune, too. Um, yeah, Calvin's an amazing fiddle. He's written like hundreds of fiddle tunes. I don't know how he does it.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

Yeah, yeah. That guy, I've seen his name on a a lot of credits in a lot of places.

SPEAKER_03 53:26

So Oh yeah, he's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:30

His his playing had a definitely had a huge impact on me. And was kind of he was one of the first guys like that I like got really into and was you know, like took a deep dive kind of into his playing and got me really excited about being a fiddle player.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

Heck yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 53:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:49

Gotta we got guys like that to look up to. You know, absolutely on that on that thought. Um, we talked a little bit about the the traditional scene earlier. Um, I know you talked about the Montana Montana fiddle camp there. Um I think right now as important as ever to kind of shine some light on that uh traditional grass scene a little bit more. That's something I'm I've been trying to do on my site as well, and it's including some of them, those guys. It seems like uh, you know, there's a lot of uh camps going on and a lot of uh festivals and and even small shows uh that are going on in the trad grass scene that you know don't really uh I feel like get heard or talked about or seen much by the general public. And you know, maybe that's due to, you know, it not necessarily being the hottest thing right now in when you're talking about uh the bluegrass world. But that being said, um, you know, traditional music is where all of this came from. Is there uh anything else uh kind of throughout the years or maybe going on right now, even that in the traditional world uh camps or anything like that that you guys are uh aware of or a part of?

SPEAKER_02 55:00

Like what like winter pick and winter grass.

SPEAKER_03 55:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

Um yeah, I mean the hard times, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:09

I guess the big one for us is the you know, the Montana Fiddle camp. Um and that's been cool for us just because we grew up, you know, as kids there and kinda now we get to be the the older, more seasoned musicians kind of trying to inspire the kids, hopefully. And um, so that's cool. Um yeah, we uh last year we went to Wintergrass out in Seattle. Okay. Um and that's a pretty cool festival, definitely more trad leaning. Um and we we weren't playing the festival, but we we like were helping our friend host the the Montana Hospitality Suite, like kind of jam room. Um so that's a that was a cool festival. Um lots of lots of people come from all over and play until late in the night in the hallways and that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

That one just made my radars recently too while doing all of this. I hadn't heard of that one.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

Yeah. What's the one they do at Larry Barnabas up there? Like yeah, the hard times in Hamilton, Montana.

SPEAKER_02 56:14

Yeah, that's like there's some cool little festivals like that around Montana where it's just you know, this the sound guys got it pretty easy. He plugs in a condenser mic and calls it a day, and it's just kind of trad bluegrass only. Sure. You know, I think I think you might even got to be careful when you're playing Southern Flavor to not play the major, the major two. You know, it's too that's too too wild for them. That's funny. And we last year we went and played this in this tiny town in Wyoming, the Warland Barbecue and Bluegrass Festival, but there's stuff like that where it's just like you know, you're playing around the can and and we just kind of dive a little deeper into our trad songs and whatnot, play a lot of fill tunes in old time. And and yeah, I think if there's people out there that are at all curious about more where this music came from, the camps and the smaller festivals are a really cool place to go and see it. Because those small festivals, the concerts cool, but almost everybody's going there for the late night picks, you know. Absolutely. And the camp's the same way, you know, you get a lot out of the classes at the camp, but you almost get more when you're sitting next to you might be sitting next to Tim O'Brien singing a song, and it's like, you know, you learn more from five minutes of that than you do. You know, we're trying to listen to anything on your phone or whatever. So it's cool if you get a bump shoulders. Bluegrass is a cool community where it's you know, I feel like, and I guess I can't speak to it because I don't know if there's there is ego in other styles of music, but I feel like there's a lot of a lot of real welcoming, you know, themes and stuff to bluegrass music. You can hop in a jam, you can learn, you can you can just, you know, everybody's in it together. And you know, like Sierra Hole and Billy Strings and Tim O'Brien, they all started the same way any of us do, you know, picking up an instrument and trying to learn how to line the baker.

SPEAKER_03 58:16

Going to their local jams and festivals and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

I think, yeah, now more than ever, we need that uh too, you know, um, is is being there for one another and creating a small community and and keeping that ball rolling. Um, I couldn't agree more, you know. I feel very welcomed in most places uh in the bluegrass scene and feel like, you know, um most people that are actually into it and and love it and care about it, they just want to keep the tradition alive. So they can't do that without uh, you know, passing it on and and being there for other people to learn from them and and so on. I think it is a a cool thing, you know. Like you said, I can't speak on it as well, but I think it is different than than other genres of music, how um, you know, there's there's so many covers, you know. If if you look at uh, you know, maybe rock and roll and some of that, you know, there's a bit of covers, but if we we get outside of this and get into, you know, um maybe, you know, let's just say rap music or something like that, there's not a a lot of this community and uh, you know, someone doing someone else's songs, right? So I think it is a different kind of style of music and playing and and uh ultimately like we've been talking about, it's more traditional. You know, it's how they they did it years ago, and um, so that's how they're gonna keep doing it while mixing in uh these new flares that keep coming about.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

Yeah. I think like if you look at uh if you look at jazz music, there's like a lot of that tradition of songs being passed around and stuff. But the cool I think the cool thing that Bluegrass has that maybe jazz doesn't, and I I'm not entirely sure, but you know those jazz songs, you know, they're cordy as hell and they're the melodies are are hard, you know, and it's not not as approachable as you know playing the Larry Sparks tune. You know, if you know if you know your basic cowboy chord shapes on guitar, you can you can kind of hop in a jam. Your right hand might not be able to keep up yet, but you know, you can start figuring it out pretty young, you know. And like when I was a kid at Fiddle Camp, I I was playing upright bass, and it was like, you know, you kind of learn to use your ear and maybe see how far the guitar player puts his capo up for the next song and figure out where you're at. And I know it was a good way to just learn those songs, and it's it's approachable, I guess what I'm trying to say. Absolutely. And it's like, yeah, it's just everybody's there for the same same reason, you know. They like playing those songs and singing them.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:49

And yeah, I I couldn't agree more. I think, you know, you mentioned uh, you know, being being young and doing it, and then seeing these youngsters coming up nowadays and doing it's like uh uh you know, if you can learn your basics, you can fit into that circle, and then you know, throughout the years you'll you'll learn the chops and you'll figure out what works and where you fit in. And um I think it's it's good that you know you guys are out here uh moving on and and passing it on to the next generation. If you don't mind me asking, how how old are you guys?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

Uh I'm 28. I'm the oldest one in the band. Okay. I'm I'm 24 and Kate, our guitar player, he's the youngest.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:28

He's 23. Okay, nice. I I I thought so. And then me and Matt and Max, they're all 26 or 27. Yeah, okay.

unknown 1:01:36

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

So we were kind of, you know, like out of college age, and and uh it's a it's a fun fun spot to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

That's awesome. I I I'm also uh 25, so I think we're kind of right around that that same demographic. We probably grew up on some of the same stuff. Um yeah. And speaking of younger, I I saw that you had guys had uh Ryan and Silas both, I believe, uh were featured on uh Jam Poke's album that they put out uh on the song Winterbird.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:08

Yeah. Yeah, that was super fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

Yeah, tell me about that. That's a I that's that's a hell of a song.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:15

That was cool. I had no idea what to expect, but those kids are awesome. They're like, they're like, I think they're really they're very Bozeman band, if you think about it. You know, they're like they're gonna try and be make it on time to their gig, but they're like they're they're going out to go skiing like 15 miles in the backcountry before the gig. So you know they're showing up and and they're changing out of their ski boots into their, you know, into their skate shoes or whatever. They're but they're yeah, there's just like a good a good group of like the college-age kids. And uh we've we've kind of got the opportunity to, you know, like have them open up for us um before. We have a show it's not announced yet, but I think we're gonna get those boys there opening up. So it's cool to like, you know, when we start getting some bigger, bigger shows in a similar way that like bands like Lady Lou and the Bird Dogs and The Last Rebel and the Kitchen Dwellers kind of took us under their wing and showed us the ropes a little bit of like what it's like, you know, going to play a real gig and you know how to be an opener and how to you know how to do a sound check even. I feel like we were like figuring all this stuff out and it's been cool, you know, the jam poke boys they're they're totally dialed and and are good at what they what they do. But when we first met them, you know, they're just getting kind of getting started out and and uh we're like oh man, these guys are cool. They're like they're jammy, people are super into it. And so when they they texted us and they're like, We're recording down at Jake Flemings, you guys want to come come track a song? And we we just kind of showed up and we had heard the song a little bit and we're like whoa dude, this is really cool. And we just kind of kind of hung out and tried to make it make it work as we were like learning this tune and bouncing ideas off each other.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

So did you two um uh just just come in? They already had the song written and you kind of uh worked your guys' parts into it?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

Yeah, they had everything else recorded.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:17

I think it's yeah, they at least had like the main bones of it. Yeah. That kind of open jam that was like they were wanting to wanted to have us on it. So that was really fun. And they're they're one of many, you know, younger bands, just like kind of kind of we were, you know, not not very long ago. And those guys are crushing it, they're out touring on the road, playing shows in Colorado and stuff. Um but yeah, I don't I'm trying to think. That was cool. It was just kind of like a little one-off deal, and it was fun to be a part of.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:57

Yeah, it was uh it was a great sound, you know. Uh I think they have a little bit of percussion over there. Um, and I liked, you know, the way that mixed in with uh the string music. Uh really kind of worked well. And I think you and you and Silas were there um coming in on that that solo after verse one uh working together. That sounded pretty spectacular. Um it's cool that you're able to work with other musicians locally there, uh older and younger um than you.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:26

Um yeah, for sure. No, that was a that was a very fun project.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:32

Yeah, it's fun the the opportunity just just living in a town like Bozeman. And I think you can I imagine you can kind of find it anywhere, but once you meet, kind of start meeting the right people, and you realize that you know, there's a lot of people making music and a lot of people writing songs, and and uh yeah, it's always fun to like get to dip our toes into a different genre a little bit. And you know, Silas and I we play some some shows with like More country bands that do like a lot of nineties country covers and that's you know, that's just as fun as hopping in with the Jam Poke Boys and like you know, it's it kind of keeps you on your toes where you're you're trying to figure out how to serve the song and and create create some good music.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:18

Sure. Then you can take some of those inspirations back with you to your own band and your own shows and uh Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:27

Um speaking of other things, well, um I saw that you guys have a show coming up in August with Sam Walker from Clay Street.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:36

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:37

Um yeah, personally, I love that guy. I think I think he has one of uh my favorite voices um coming up in the scene right now. Um voice of an angel. Yeah, truly. I mean, he gets high, he gets low, he goes wherever he needs to be. Um I think that uh those boys are are creating a cool sound too. You know, I was talking to somebody the other day, um, I think it was Matt over at Dome Swap, actually, and we were talking about them. And, you know, they kind of give you a feel of maybe like uh, you know, early 2000s steel drivers or you know, a little bit more like Americana with the blue with the bluegrass and influence, you know. Um I know I've I did a little bit of digging into those guys and I actually got to catch them a few weeks back. Um, but super excited to see you guys on a having Sam on a bill. Uh I guess how did you guys come together and you know what brought this idea to life? I think it's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:31

Yeah, we uh so we met the Clay Street unit um was last year or the year before. I guess last year. I can't remember. It might have been. No, two years, yeah, I think two years ago. At uh that Creekside Festival that we're hosting this year. Nice. Um, they were playing and we uh I don't know. That's a it's a fun festival because it's it's uh lots of bands coming together and picking after the late night and and everything. And so we we ended up hanging out with all those guys till early hours of the morning.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:02

Maybe like Jake Simpson uh from The Little Smokies now if Jake's playing with like Dave Matthews band and stuff. I think we stayed up like till like the sun was coming up just playing songs and you know, hanging out. But it's been really fun to get to know Sam and his band. I last year when Clay Street came to Pine Creek Lodge, um Ryan Acker from The Last Rebel and I opened up for for that for them, and that was really fun. And then we went and hopped in and played a couple songs with them. Silas and I have sat in with Clay Street before. But yeah, I think if you're looking at like if you're looking at you know younger bands out there that are just crushing, it's like Sam, Sam and and his voice just kind of supported by a really great band. It's like they've got kind of they've got all the ingredients to throw on a good show. And so it's been it's been really fun to get to know Sam and stoked to stoked to have him on a bill. I just shot him a text. I was like, yo, what are you free this date? And uh he was like, I think I am, what's up? And I was like, dude, would you wanna would you wanna like open up for us and then come play some songs and sit in? And and he was he was stoked. So it's fun to, you know, for us, you know, you see a band like Clay Street that's just like blowing up and crushing it, it's cool to cool to be friends with with them and and you know, just get the opportunity to make some good music with them.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:33

Absolutely. They're on a great trajectory. So is is uh is the plan to have Sam kind of do a solo set before you guys then?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:41

I think that is the plan. I'm not sure you I guess maybe there's a chance he would do like a duo or a trio, but I think I think right now the plan he'll probably do a solo set and then and then I'm sure we'll have to get him up to to sing and pick a couple.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:55

Heck yeah, absolutely. That's gonna be awesome. Well, I hope you guys uh you know really kill it out there and that'll be that'll be in closer to the end of the summer. There's a lot of uh lot of roads between here and then.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:07

Oh yeah, we'll we're we're gonna be busy. We should be we should be pretty warmed up for that one. That'd be fun at Globe Hall in Denver.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:15

And that's a good, good, nice size venue too, so it's nice to see you guys uh you know fitting in some places like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:21

Yeah, it's great. It'll be our second time there. We opened up for a band there one night, or I guess it was maybe kind of a split COVID. And we we had like the first slot and uh had a great show there, and there's you know, the room was the room was full, and uh hopefully we can do it again and get some people out.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:41

That's awesome, guys. I I look forward to to seeing seeing all this goodness from that, and that'll be good. Um kind of wind it up here. Been uh don't want to talk your guys' ear off too long. Um I know the record just came out a few weeks ago. It hasn't even been a month yet, uh if I'm not mistaken. Um I guess what do you guys have in store uh kind of for the year? Maybe that we haven't talked about anything to go along with the album um or anything you're kind of excited about.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:13

Yeah, I mean we have uh well I guess we have our album release party coming up soon. That's gonna be really fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:21

Yeah, it's May 29th, so like just a little over a week. And we're doing that at Pine Creek Lodge. We we normally do a a show, like a a headlining show there, kind of towards the beginning of the summer, and then that sets us up to go back and play at Creekside. Um that's gonna be really fun. What else do we got coming up?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:39

We have some some fun festivals, uh Summer in Montana.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:47

And then last year we uh we did they do a little contest at Red Ant's Pence, and everybody going to the festival gets like two little tickets, and then there's between the headlining acts, there's a side stage, and you know, I think we played an hour set. Um, and uh then it's like crowd voted, and we ended up we ended up getting the most votes there, and so we get to we're opening up the festival this year, so that'll be really fun. That's a killer vibe.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:20

That's a hard-earned opportunity. Yeah, that's a good bill. Another one that uh you know I hadn't heard of in years previous and until starting my website and building this calendar out that I've done. Um, it's great to see. That's kind of one I think that maybe is a little bit more on the traditional leaning side too. Um, but hats off to you guys for earning that spot over there and and winning the crowd over.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

Thanks, yeah. We're pretty thankful to take, you know, any anywhere you go where your music's well received and you can see, you know, people, you know, even just bringing them a couple songs that they might take home and and enjoy or something to you know, anytime you play a song and and people people are into it, you know it means something to them, and it's it's huge for us to get to go play for people who who want to hear.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:15

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, I I appreciate you guys making the good music. I always say it wouldn't be a good world if there wasn't good music to go with it. So that being said, I hope that uh people get out there and check your guys' shows out, and hopefully, you know, us having this conversation here today will uh you know bring some more listeners over there and um turn some new ears and eyes on to you guys. I know um I was turned on uh last year or so when you guys uh did your first collaboration with Dome Swap and have been a fan since then. So I've already I've already worn this uh album out pretty good, preparing to uh chat with you guys today. And I'll be continuing to listen to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:56

So um well thanks so much for for uh for being a listener and and a fan and giving us the opportunity to come come uh chat with you for a little while. This mean means a lot to us and and it's cool to see yeah, like you said, I hope hope maybe somebody somebody who hasn't heard us before maybe wants to check us out and and if we're if we're playing somewhere close to them that they come on out and hang out and we can shake their hand and play them some tunes.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:28

Heck yeah. Well, I've got you guys uh docked up on my calendar, so if they check it out, they'll uh they'll see your whole tour schedule there.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

Um where do we find you on that? Where is that?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:41

Yeah, so it's just at uh bluegrassroadshow.com. Yeah. Um I've been kind of in the process of of of launching um the actual website um on its on its own platform by itself and putting everything on one place. I've kind of had it spread out and and been in, you know, the email newsletter phase and then you know, playing the kind of social media aspect of it and doing that way. But um I've had this calendar built out for a while and I've figured out how to incorporate it actually onto a website and uh make it pretty functional. So yeah, you can check that out there. Um I'm getting ready to, I'll be launching, you know, kind of posting more about the website and letting people know that it's a thing here this month. I really just got it off of the ground, but I look forward. You guys are are gonna be one of the the first uh official interviews for the new website.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:32

So I'll man, yeah. I'm excited to check it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:35

Yeah, I'm super appreciated for you guys uh just giving me the opportunity and you know, giving me an hour or so of your time. I know uh time is valuable these days, and um I I genuinely very very much appreciate it and I uh hope our paths uh will cross one of these days. Yeah, that would be awesome. We'll have to pick some tunes.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:53

Yeah, we had uh counter here in that colour was I guess the closest we've been for uh Blue Ox.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:59

Yeah, you guys are coming out this summer for that, right? Yes, that'd be fun. Cool, yeah. I uh I'm not exactly sure what I've got planned that weekend. I was gonna try to make it to a day or two of that, so hopefully I'll see you guys out there. We've got uh Larry Sparks coming up to a local bluegrass festival here that uh Thursday before.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:18

You're not gonna want to miss that.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:19

Yeah, so I I think I I'm on the docket to see him, but then uh probably gonna busk over to Blue Ox for a day or two if possible. So hopefully uh things line up when we see you guys over there. But that'll be awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:31

Yeah, and we we definitely want to start hitting the Midwest more.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:34

So yeah, and if uh you know we never ever need anything pointing in the right direction. I know I spoke with uh uh your manager Max there. Um if you guys ever, you know, need a hand or um you know putting the bug in the ear or local venues, that kind of thing, feel free to reach out. Um we've got a good little scene going on here, kind of in the Midwest. I'd say like as a whole, it's kind of like Michigan, you know, Illinois, Wisconsin kind of fit all in this little bubble of bluegrass. And uh there's a lot of cool bands coming up right now out of here, but it's always uh nice to get some some newcomers out here. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we'd love to get out there. Well, I appreciate you guys. I will definitely be in contact with you uh, you know, as I post this up. And if I I got any more questions, I'll I'll be sure to reach out to you, Silas.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:22

Um, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:23

But no, it's been uh been a pleasure speaking with you guys, and the amount of uh knowledge and and information you dropped on me today has been great. So now I gotta uh put it all together.

unknown 1:17:34

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:35

Well, yeah, thanks again for the opportunity. Looking forward to looking forward to checking out your stuff and and uh hopefully, yeah, cross paths soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:43

Yeah, I'm sure we will. It's a small world in this little bluegrass scene. So uh I guarantee we will here soon. Cool, cool. Well, I appreciate you guys very much, and uh, we'll talk soon. All right, talk soon. Thank you guys, have a blessed evening. Well, that is going to do it for this week's episode of Bluegrass Roadshow's talk show. I truly appreciate you sticking around and making it to the end here. I want to thank Ryan and Silas both for taking the time out of their busy schedules to sit down and have a conversation with me, as well as the rest of their band, for making such a fantastic album. Also, a special shout out goes to their manager Max for connecting the Dodge between Silas and I. Teamwork always makes the dream work. Last but not least, I have to thank the man behind the scenes, old Sundog. If it wasn't for him, none of this would be possible. So if you haven't already, go back and check out episode 0, where he and I sit down and discuss what exactly Bluegrass Road Show is, how it came to life, and where it's headed. This has been your host, Hunter Wiseman, speaking, saying best of luck and health to you. If the good lord's willin' and the creeks don't rise, we'll see you before long.