NewFound Road

The music of NewFound Road is marked by a refreshing clarity – a sense of honesty and purpose rarely heard in today’s bluegrass. For with the increased popular interest in bluegrass music has come an increased willingness to sweeten and tamper: maybe a touch of percussion here, a pedal steel there, a little piano on the chorus. Yet with their visceral, road-honed attack and disarming purity of vision, NewFound Road are a vivid reminder of the power inherent in undiluted, stripped-down bluegrass. This unflinching immediacy is bolstered by a wide range of stylistic influences, the presence of three remarkably soulful vocalists, and strong in-house songwriting talent, making NewFound Road among the most dynamic and thrilling contemporary bluegrass bands on today’s thriving scene.

Life in a Song, in stores on September 26, is NewFound Road’s fourth album and their first for Rounder Records. On it, NewFound Road members Rob Baker (mandolin/vocals), Randy Barnes (bass), Tim Shelton (guitar/vocals), and Jr. Williams (banjo/guitar/vocals) resourcefully balance both the timeless and the modern elements of bluegrass, emerging with a sound that is eclectic and yet supremely focused. The album was produced by musician Rob Ickes, a man who, as a member of Blue Highway, is no stranger to cutting-edge contemporary bluegrass, and who also explores a wide range of bluegrass byways on his solo albums. Ickes, who occasionally contributes resonator or slide guitar, and fiddler Jim Van Cleve are the only outside instrumentalists heard on Life in a Song. The core instrumental sound comes entirely from NewFound Road, and is steered by Williams’ haunting, driving banjo and Baker’s fleet mandolin breaks.

“Making this album was a challenge,” Shelton reflects. “We did things completely different than we’ve ever done, and for the better I think. We did pretty much all of the album live with very little overdubbing. We wanted it to sound like us.” Life in a Song begins with bracing three-part, unaccompanied harmonies leading into a storming version of Blue Highway guitarist/songwriter Tim Stafford’s “Cold Blue Day,” which features a riveting, nuanced lead vocal from Shelton. The same intensity is present in the second track, “Douglas Graves,” only this time refashioned from blisteringly up tempo to a slowly smoldering groove. The song, a collaboration between Stafford and Nashville luthier Audey Ratliff, is a stunning contemporary composition written in the tradition of the evocative ballads brought into Appalachia from Ireland, England, and Scotland. The band’s arrangement is expert in its use of dynamics and instrumental subtlety to convey the song’s brooding undercurrent.

A stirring a capella version of the spiritual “When I Get Home” points to the band’s deep roots in gospel music. NewFound Road was born as a bluegrass and acoustic gospel band in southwest Ohio five years ago, when Tim Shelton first played with fellow Buckeye State bluegrasser Rob Baker and Kentucky pickers Jr. Williams and Tim Caudill (the band’s original bassist). “We got together in Jr.’s living room on the fourth of July of 2001 to play and meet,” explains Shelton. “We all wanted to play music the way that we heard it in our heads, and it just clicked from the very beginning.” Caudill has since left the band, and was replaced by former Rhonda Vincent and the Rage bassist Randy Barnes. (Baker, too, served a stint as Vincent’s bassist in 2001.) Barnes’ solid pulse and rich tone is the foundation of NewFound Road’s sound.

The band released two albums of sacred music produced by the renowned Ben Isaacs. Their third album, 2005’s Somewhere Between, was their first collection of mostly secular material, and featured the number one bluegrass radio hit “It’s Raining the Blues.” The decision to move into secular music was one that the band gave an immense amount of thought and consideration to. "If I were a plumber," Shelton explains, "I wouldn’t just work on church buildings or only go into a Christian’s home to work…we just didn’t want the boundaries anymore. I’ll admit that we caught some flack for going ‘secular’ from some well-intentioned people who felt like we were turning our back on God. It was the furthest thing from the truth: we are just a bunch of guys that happen to be Christian and also happen to play in a band. We’ve always loved a wide variety of music, and felt sort of limited."

Life in a Song is testament to the just how vast NewFound Road’s influences are. The original songs range from the pristine, eloquent lament “In My Sleep” (co-written by Shelton and Baker and featuring a guest vocal from Sonya Isaacs) to Baker’s title track, which pairs a reflective lyric with a superbly streamlined, uncluttered modern bluegrass arrangement. Baker steps to the mic several times, taking the lead vocal on “In My Sleep” and a sleek take on the traditional “Handsome Molly,” while Williams delivers a superb reading of Tom T. Hall’s heartbreaki