Front Country, with some of the Bay Area’s finest young bluegrass players, won the RockyGrass band competition in 2012 and the Telluride band competition in 2013, released a debut EP, This Is Front Country, in early 2014, and has since released a full-length album, Sake of the Sound, which has earned raves. “One listen and your view of bluegrass will never be the same,” says Folkwords. The BBC has called Front Country “the biggest new bluegrass band in America.” The band features Adam Roszkiewicz on mandolin, Jacob Groopman on guitar, Jordan Klein on banjo, Leif Karlstrom on fiddle, Zach Sharpe on bass, and Melody Walker on guitar and lead vocals. Melody won the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest, and Adam earned a Grammy nomination for his work with the Modern Mandolin Quartet. With impressive musicianship and infectious enthusiasm, this is a band that sizzles and swings!

San Francisco based Colonels of Truth call their music “Northern California Neo Bluegrass Anti Folk Urban Gospel Alt Country Americana.” Which is another way of saying they play intriguing acoustic music that draws on a broad array of influences new and old: everything from The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Band to Son Volt and Old Crow Medicine Show. They wear their influences on their collective sleeve, but the blend is all their own, tight arrangements with jangly guitars and dark humor blended with rich harmonies. Two of the songs from their 2013 EP Songs of Love, Blood & Redemption were featured in FX’s Legit. The band features Rick Santos, Peter Doninguez, David Sants, Robert Scott Mueller, and Ian Taylor Sutton.

visit the Front Country website

visit the Colonels of Truth website