Mon 9th October | 8pm
Tickets: £8 Earlybird, £11 First Release, £14 Second Release
This ground-breaking, genre-shaking San Francisco group screw up every tradition of the sound America gave to the world and remoulded it.
When Bob Harris played tracks Front Country’s memorable debut album, Sake of The Sound on BBC Radio 2, he told listeners they were “currently the biggest band on the bluegrass scene in America”…and he was right.
Coming out of the California Bay area’s red-hot roots music scene, the band first made serious waves with rarely-accomplished double “best act” competition wins at both the Telluride and Rockygrass music festivals – possibly the most prestigious get-togethers for the genre in the USA.
They’ve been praised for their ability to choose songs to cover (and arrange) that suit them perfectly; they’ve been praised for their sensational individual instrumental performances, for the top quality of their vocal harmonies and the high standard of the self-penned material. In other words, they make music that is distinctly their own; when musicians play and sing this well together, it only serves to magnify the power achieved.
Right at the core are the stunning pairing of Melody Walker and Jacob Groopman, already well-established as a considerable force on the circuit. Their high level of accomplishment is matched by sidekicks Adam Roszkiewicz (mandolin), Leif Karlstrom (violin) and Zach Sharp (bass).
When Sake of The Sound got it’s European release late in 2014, it went from nowhere straight to the Number 11 position on the influential Euro Americana Chart and some of the top music writers in the UK gave it four and five-star ratings. Maverick magazine contributor Paul Kerr enjoyed its “pop sensibility of Fleetwood Mac while retaining a woody, organic feel,” while R2 reviewer David Innes said: “Front Country have put down a strong marker for album of the year.” Writing at Folking.com, Dai Jeffries called the band “exceptional.”