Old Settler's Music Festival : 2010 Lineup : Blue Highway

2010 Lineup > Blue Highway

schedule & times subject to change.

Fri : 04:00 pm - 05:15 pm

Creating compelling, relevant modern bluegrass is a delicate balancing act. An artist must retain enough of the music’s time-honored elements to remain recognizable as bluegrass, while imparting enough of their own personality to leave arrive at a sound that is unique and personal. It is a challenge that Blue Highway accepts with an acrobat’s sense of grace and skill. The five men who make up Blue Highway are committed to expanding the expressive boundaries of bluegrass through their own powerful individual songwriting voices, formidable instrumental abilities, dynamic arrangements, and an unrivaled ensemble sound born of over fourteen years of performing together. Released in February of 2008, Through the Window of a Train is Blue Highway’s eighth album and a powerful consolidation of the band’s strengths and their definitive statement to date as songwriters, performers, vocalists, and – harder to define sonically, but so rare and crucial – collaborators, bandmates, and friends.

Composed of Jason Burleson (banjo, guitar, mandolin), Rob Ickes (Dobro and Weissenborn-style slide guitars), Shawn Lane (vocals, mandolin, fiddle, guitar), Tim Stafford (vocals, guitar), and Wayne Taylor (vocals, bass), Blue Highway has developed a streamlined, flexible take on the bluegrass tradition that makes them among the most influential bands in the genre today. Each member is among the most distinguished performers on his instrument of choice, and the band, individually and collectively, has collected a number of awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association, including Album of the Year (for 1996’s It’s a Long, Long Road), two awards for Gospel Performance of the Year, 1996’s Emerging Artist of the Year honor, and nine Dobro Player of the Year awards for Ickes. The paradigm established by Blue Highway has made them widely admired by subsequent generations of bluegrass musicians. “They’re kinda like our big brother band,” says Jeremy Garrett of the Infamous Stringdusters, whose acclaimed debut album, which tied for IBMA’s Album of the Year award in 2007, was produced by Stafford. “We have always looked up to Blue Highway…”

First convened in 1994, Blue Highway quickly set themselves apart from the bluegrass pack with a trio of heralded albums for Rebel Records that offered ample evidence of the band’s ability create striking original music that still resounded with timeless bluegrass soul. After 1999’s self-titled album on Ceili Music (which featured Tom Adams in the place of Burleson, who returned to the fold shortly thereafter), Blue Highway joined forces with Rounder Records. Their first Rounder release, 2001’s Still Climbing Mountains, was their first album of entirely original material. It was followed in 2003 by the gospel project Wondrous Love, winner of IBMA’s Gospel Performance of the Year in 2004, and by 2005’s thrilling Marbletown, which featured original songs mixed with riveting interpretations of songs by such writers as Mark Knopfler (the title cut) and Gary Scruggs (“Lazarus”). Both Wondrous Love and Marbletown were nominated for Grammy® awards in the Best Bluegrass Album category.

While previous albums have enlisted the aid of a series of illustrious producers – most recently Scott Rouse (Marbletown), Alan O’Bryant (Wondrous Love), and Jerry Douglas (Still Climbing Mountains) – Through the Window of a Train finds the band returning to self-production, cutting the album in the out-of-the-way environs of Maggard Sound studio in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. “This area is home to me,” says Wayne Taylor, and Stafford is quick to point out that four of the five members of Blue Highway are from the region, a musical hotbed in the shadow of the storied Clinch Mountain ridge. Through the Window of a Train features only one outside instrumentalist, and is the band’s second album to be composed exclusively of original material, still a rare feat in bluegrass, which as a genre relies greatly on vintage repertoire and traditional songs.

“This is the easiest record we’ve ever done,” observes Rob Ickes. The process behind Through the Window of a Train was organic and spontaneous. “People always ask us how we go about arranging material,” Ickes continues. “I tell people we don’t work out anything – we just start playing. We just catch it as it happens, and that’s when you get the more memorable stuff. So that’s been the plan for this record – or lack of plan!”

“I like the idea of not having a preconceived notion,” adds Burleson. “It adds energy…”

The consistent quality of songwriting is key to Blue Highway’s music, and forms the bedrock of their sound, informing almost every musical decision. “The way the song is written will dictate the arrangement,” explains Shawn Lane. “Nine times out of ten, it will tell you what it wants to do, if you listen close enough.” Lane’s exhilarating “Life of a Travelin’ Man” opens the set, with Burleson’s banjo kicking off a dazzling, sophisticated arrangement marked by call-and-response instrumental breaks, spot-on harmonies (Lane and Taylor), and a surprising half-length verse yielding to an instrumental bridge featuring a series of solos over a new set of chord changes. The travel theme is continued by Stafford’s bittersweet title track, which documents the passage of time via the contrasting experiences of rail (slow and steady, courteous and scenic) and automobile travel (anonymous, unchanging).

“These guys are such good writers,” Burleson observes. “They hardly ever write something like your standard three-chord bluegrass tunes.”

Stafford concurs, adding “It’s not your basic cabin songs.” Indeed, the subjects explored on Through the Window of a Train are well outside the bluegrass mainstream. Taylor’s “Homeless Man” is a sympathetic portrait of a homeless veteran, plagued and eventually overtaken by nightmares and a mounting sense of alienation from the country he defended. The military also figures prominently in Stafford’s devastating “Two Soldiers,” a vivid, captivating song which describes two officers on the army’s funeral detail – going from one door to the next to inform people that their loved ones will not be coming home. “Say a silent prayer they all come back alive,” the song concludes, “and never see Jack and me pull up in their drive.” Lane’s “Where Did the Morning Go?” uses the early hours of the day as a metaphor for life and the speed at which time seems to pass.

The band’s musical sensitivity, both vocal and instrumental, in interpreting such poignant sentiments shines throughout Through the Window of a Train. Taylor’s ruggedly soulful vocals convey resignation and resilience in equal measure on “Homeless Man” and the yearning “My Ropin’ Days Are Done.” In addition to Stafford’s eloquent and plain-spoken vocal, “Two Soldiers” features percussion from Tony Creasman, echoing the song’s sentiment with an ominous military march pattern. Burleson’s “The North Cove” is the album’s lone instrumental, a bluesy mid-tempo song that features an especially nimble break from Ickes. Ickes’ acoustic slide guitar is also prominent in Lane’s Civil War-era tale “Sycamore Hollow,” including a haunting, scene-setting rubato introduction.

From the songwriting to the production and instrumentation, Through the Window of a Train is Blue Highway’s most personal and direct effort yet. It is an album that could only have come about via the talent and camaraderie forged in Blue Highway’s ongoing tenure together. “Being together for that long and playing together for that long really helps when it comes time to make a record,” explains Taylor. Lane is quick to add, “We hear stuff at the same time.”

“To be in a band with guys like this,” Ickes concludes, “has been a dream come true.”

Individual Bios

Tim Stafford – Guitar player extraordinaire and band organizer, Tim was early on, a key player in the Grammy-winning team of Alison Krauss & Union Station. His rhythmic guitar style, song writing and arranging contributions are an integral part of the Blue Highway sound. FGM Records released his critically-acclaimed solo record, Endless Line, in 2004. For more, see www.tim-stafford.com/bio.htm.

Rob Ickes – Seven-time winner of the IBMA Dobro Performer of the Year, and unsurpassed among young Dobro players, Rob adds a brilliant touch to the sound of Blue Highway. He is quickly establishing himself as the ace session Dobroist in Nashville as the first decade of the 21st century progresses. His session credits are almost too numerous to mention. In addition to his steady job gigging with Blue Highway, he has played shows with Earl Scruggs, Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless, Ricky Skaggs and others. A consummate musician, Rob is dedicated to his craft. He’s also recorded four highly-praised solo albums for Rounder. For more, see www.robickes.com/bio.cfm.

Shawn Lane – One of the most affecting singers in the business, Shawn cut his musical teeth in the bands of Ricky Skaggs (who expressed a special regard for his tenor singing) and Doyle Lawson, and is a brilliant musician on mandolin, fiddle, and guitar. In addition, he’s a world-class songwriter. Shawn has written a large number of songs in the Blue Highway repertoire, and his compositions have also been recorded by Ricky Skaggs, Ronnie Bowman, Mountain Heart, Blue Ridge and others. Check out his great solo record, All for Today, released by Rebel in 2003.

Wayne Taylor – A gifted songwriter and rock-solid bassist, Wayne’s Southwest Virginia pedigree adds soul to his singing. Wayne’s songs are consistently among the most requested at the band’s live shows: numbers like “Keen Mountain Prison,” “Don’t Come Out of the Hole,” “Lonesome Pine,” “Riding the Danville Pike,” “Before the Cold Winds Blow,” and most recently, “Seven Sundays in a Row.” The 2001 SPBGMA bass performer of the year, Wayne is the first-string lead singer for Blue Highway and an integral part of its sound.

Jason Burleson – The original banjo player with Blue Highway, Jason is a native of Newland, North Carolina. A talented multi-instrumentalist, he brings all-around musicianship to the group, not the least of which is his distinctive, rock-solid banjo style. Jason also anchors the group’s quartets with his growling bass. A jazz devotee, Jason’s talent hasn’t been fully revealed yet to the bluegrass community and gives Blue Highway unlimited options for the future.