Lonesome Traveler

The day was Aug. 20 2005. The place: Red Feather Lakes. As Chad Fisher and Olivia Brown were being joined in holy matrimony, a group of bluegrass "pickers" assembled together on stage for the first time.
By the end of the night, Fisher and Brown were man and wife, and the Lonesome Traveler Bluegrass Band started a kinship of its own.
"After the wedding, we thought 'wow, this is fun'," said vocalist Jodi Boyce.
Soon the musicians were asked to play another gig, for which they recruited two other bluegrass players - the groom and a groomsman from their original wedding performance - to play along with them.
"That's when we realized we were a band and that we better figure out a name," Boyce said.
Soon this gaggle of pickers - bluegrass jammers who aren't part of a band - committed to the Lonesome Traveler Bluegrass Band, or LTBB.
"We love every one of the members in the band," said Dustin Scott. "We're like a family."
And, in fact, most of them are actually related. It starts with father-son guitar duo Rick and Dustin Scott. They're cousins of fiddler Fisher and bassist Evan Neal's wives, who happen to be sisters. Throw in "adopted" mandolinist Boyce and dobroist Ansel Foxley and the musical family tree is in full bloom.
"We're all best friends," Neal said, "which isn't always the case with bands."
Recently the Loveland six-some has earned it's place as one of the finest bluegrass bands on this side of the Mississippi, placing second in both the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride and the RockyGrass Festival in Lyons.
Not bad for a band that has yet to sign with a record label.
"It was pretty cool to play in nationally known festivals," Boyce said. "It was a really high honor (to place second)."
Whether it's Lonesome Traveler's bluesy harmonies and soulful strumming or it's original integration of guitar fingerpicking and a dobro (a resonator guitar), Neal credits it's popularity to the member's passion for the music.
"We play from the heart," he said.
Since it's release last year, the band's self-titled album has been selling like hot cakes.
"(Our music) isn't really genre-specific," Neal said. "Old people like it, kids like it and everyone in between."
And with the help of online CD distributor CDBaby.com, Lonesome Traveler's album is being purchased by fans throughout the world, including Spain, Scotland and Japan.
"We're doing really well," Boyce said.
But the members of the band aren't letting popularity go to their heads, as they rarely encounter family feuds that can come along with, well, family.
"We try and put the music first," Neal said. "We're very relaxed, which I understand is quite unusual for a group of folks (in a band) to do."
A true test came en route to some gigs in Nebraska and Iowa, when the band crammed seven people and two dogs into one van - and they were just fine.
"We had a really good time," said Neal.
The band plans to start recording its second album in October, which, according to Boyce, will be released in time to be sold as a Christmas gift.
"We want to take (the band) as far as we can go," Boyce said. "It seems like everything is lining up to do that...we just gotta keep on playing."
The group's album can be purchased online at CDBaby.com, over the phone by calling 301-0487 or at any of their shows. - Loveland Reporter Herald - August 19, 2007

While picking at last summer's jam-friendly RockyGrass Bluegrass Festival, Jodi Boyce and her Lonesome Traveler Bluegrass Band mates found the missing link to their musical equation.
In the market for a banjo player to replace a school-bound James Weatherly, the remaining band members headed to a RockyGrass camp jam. It was dark when Jeff Scroggins - a national banjo champion from Albuquerque, NM - approached Boyce and asked if he could join in with the band: Boyce on mandolin, Ansel Foxley on resonator guitar, Evan Neal on bass and father-son guitarists Rick and Dustin Scott.
Then and there, Boyce knew Scroggins had filled the band's opening, though he didn't officially join Lonesome Traveler until September, when he again picked with the Loveland band at the Walnut Valley Festival in Kansas.
Less than a year later, Lonesome Traveler has proven a respected and award-winning force with which to be reckoned. The group nabbed two wins at Arizona's 2006 Wickenburg Bluegrass Festival (a first-place win for specialty duet and second-place win for best band) and second-place honor in the 2007 Telluride Bluegrass Festival's best band competition.
"You know, we definitely prepared," Boyce says. "They use one mic - there's no extra mics for everyone. We really prepared. We did a lot of shows like that before we did the contest."
Though Scroggins won't perform with the band at this weekend's RockyGrass band competition (He is performing with another New Mexico-based band), Lonesome Traveler has big hopes for the contest. Weeks before the band's Telluride win, it toured cities across Iowa and Nebraska, performing 12 shows in 13 days.
"I feel like I've grown a ton," says Dustin Scott.
"It's like we're playing the same songs we were playing last year. But I've gone up. I feel personally, as a musician, we've all risen a level or two. I feel more comfortable on stage."
Much of the band's performance repertoire comes from its 2006, self-titled release, which, according to Scott, contains the same balance of original and standard bluegrass tunes that fans can anticipate from its next album. Tentatively named "Listen to That Sound," the band hopes to release the CD in late 2007 or early 2008.
If Telluride provides any clues as to what RockyGrass audiences can expect, Lonesome Traveler likely will perform tunes such as Scott's "Deep in the Pines," Boyce's "Summer Wind" and the Bill Monroe classic "Blue Moon of Kentucky."
Those three songs proved a part of a winning combination at Telluride in June and could attract similar praise at RockyGrass' band competition, an accolade Boyce wouldn't mind. In the end, she says, RockyGrass is about much more than contests.
"I never feel like I'm competing against anybody," she says. "I always feel like we're competing against ourselves, 'cause we know how well we can play. We just have to get over the nerves and move on and play. But I don't ever feel like I'm in competition with another band, just because everybody is so different and everybody has such a unique thing to bring to the music. Everybody's voice needs to be heard." - Longmont Daily-Times Call - July 27, 2007

“Lonesome Traveler's "Listen To That Sound" is a breath of fresh air. This is a beautiful recording, with instruments and vocals perfectly balanced. The playing is great, and the harmonies are tight. This album has appeal for bluegrass fans, folkies, or anyone who appreciates honest music. When you've heard this CD once, you'll need to hear it again. It's that good.” - CKWR-FM, Waterloo, Ontario

“I’d highly recommend the Lonesome Traveler Bluegrass Band for any festival or acoustic music event! The band is extremely talented both vocally and instrumentally and have their “own sound” which includes lots of original material and unique arrangements. Individually, the band members are all cooperative, professional and a joy to work with. The future of Bluegrass Music looks good indeed with the emergence of groups like the Lonesome Traveler Bluegrass Band!”

- none

Colorado-based Lonesome Traveler Bluegrass Band explores the old timey side of bluegrass music. Their sound harkens back to 30's string bands - closer to early Stanley Brothers mountain music than Bill Monroe driving Late 40's bands. Their version of Gillian Welch's "Tear My Stillhouse Down" infuses a twinge of western swing into this pseudo-depression era song. Jodi Boyce's straightforward lead vocals and mandolin solos set the tone for many of Lonesome Traveler's interpretations of classic bluegrass material.
- Vintage Guitar Magazine

...On Saturday the 19th, you won't want to miss Lonesome Traveler Bluegrass Band, a crew of six dedicated to traditional bluegrass and country, flavored with blues, rock and Celtic. With both old songs and new ones of their own devising, two of their trademarks are harmony and flat-pick guitar technique. These folks pick up awards wherever they wander. Jodi Boyce is a Georgia gal with a real flair for the mandolin. Rick Scott has been playing guitar since Hector was a pup. Dobroist Ansel Foxley moonlights with a rock band, Greenstreet Majority. Then you've got Dustin Scott (guitar and vocals), Evan Neal (upright bass), and Chad Fisher (fiddle) for an altogether rollicking show.... - Scene Magazine

STRONG originals, good cover tunes (I want to be like Norman Blake when I grow up!), great instrumental work, and fine ensemble playing. We'll be spinning Listen To That Sound here until centrifugal force sends the songs careening to the outer edges of the disc! - Fields of Bluegrass

Lonesome Traveler has been wowing audiences across the country with their warm vocals, original tunes, and stellar picking. Lonesome Traveler is the only band to ever take second place at both Telluride and Rocky Grass in the same year! This Colorado band is rapidly gaining fans across the nation, and with their busy cross-country schedule, these travelers don't get to perform locally very often. Come out one of their too-few front range performances, and see & hear them on one of the best acoustic stages anywhere. - Colorado Bluegrass Music Society

The Lonesome Traveler New CD Release

THE NOCO BEAT
by Jan Peterson

I met the Lonesome Traveler Bluegrass Band at Avogadro’s Number, the longtime bluegrass music hangout in Ft. Collins. They were putting on a show featuring songs from their new release “Listen to that Sound.” The official CD release party hasn’t been scheduled yet, but it will be held at The Swing Station, the newest bluegrass hangout in Ft. Collins (actually, LaPorte). Yes, Ft. Collins is a hotbed of bluegrass activity in northern Colorado! The band’s marketing director wants you all to know that they will probably have CDs available for the Pickin’ at the Pavilion event in Montrose. The Travelers will also be having another CD release party, later, in Estes Park at the Rock Inn (check out their web site: www.lonesometravelerbluegrass.com).

CD Release Parties are fun! When the party music is exquisite, that’s even better! And, believe me, this group is worth going out of your way to hear. Asked to define -or label- their music, they were indecisive: Acoustic music. Americana. It’s not really traditional Bluegrass. Bluegrass with expanded horizons. Music for everybody. Different enough to draw people to it. They just got back from a successful 2-week tour of the midwest and southeast, where they said they got the reaction, “Oh, I didn’t know that was bluegrass; I like that!”

Whatever you want to call it, it’s amazingly beautiful. The music ebbs and flows, swirling around the vocals in a complex interplay of “voices,” both instrumental and vocal. There are strategic stops, staggered harmonies, syncopation and counterpoint rhythms, all orchestrated over a wide dynamic range into an emotional musical expression of feelings derived from the words.

And yet it is -definitely- a bluegrass-derived style. There are some very traditional-sounding songs with driving banjo, like “Walking Shoes,” and “Life,” which has some powerhouse vocal harmonies. “Summer Wind” is a transitional blend of traditional bluegrass and the more-developed musical layering of other songs like “Darlin’ Darlin’.” There’s even bass slapping (that’s slapping in a good way), and bass bowing (not on the same song). The instruments and vocalists play off of one another and respond to each other. It’s an audio choreography that draws you in and holds you captive - to the point that you identify with your captors.

Even on their cover of “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind,” which includes brushes on a snare, the drum is tastefully integrated with the acoustic instruments as a means of giving the song a driving choo-choo train momentum. That song’s layered introduction of “voices” and split breaks, including some toe-tapping finger-pickin’ guitar, also help to keep you moving right along.

There are gospel songs, or should I say religious songs, because they’re not traditional gospel. “All My Tears” is a powerful affirmation of belief.

And the love songs are nontraditional, too. The album’s title track, “Listen to That Sound,” packs an emotional wallop, while “Not Like You” stresses the ambiguity in the uncertain nature of a new relationship.

And for the price of one band, you get an amazing variety of lead vocals from Dustin Scott, (guitar), Jodi Boyce (mandolin), and Ansel Foxley (the instrument formerly known as Dobro). These three weave together harmonies that sometimes verge on ethereal. In “Beautiful Day,” they all three take turns singing the lead at different times, and then come back together in a three-part harmony to close the song out. “Not Like You” is another ebbing and flowing song with vocal harmonies that surge and float above the instruments. Even Rick Scott (finger-picking guitar) and Evan Neal (bass) occasionally get into the act of singing lead, although not on this CD. Rounding out the band is Chad Fisher (fiddle) who’s understated fiddle playing fits in perfectly with the other instrumental voices. One of the CD’s two instrumental songs, “Springtime” is reminiscent of the precision picking of Leo Koetke, even though it is a dobro and finger-pickin guitar duet. And the other, an original by Rick Scott, has some surprising timing twists, hence the name, “Watch Out!”

The band is quick to say that Aaron Youngberg, who’s Swing Fingers Studio was used to record this CD, was a great inspiration, mentor, coach, prodder... and friend. Not to mention Producer. Aaron even plays the banjo on the songs that include one. And Aaron’s wife, Erin, played the drums (they both play in Swing Station’s house band, as well as other former and current bands too numerous to mention). Yes, the bluegrass family is big in Ft. Collins. You might even call the Travelers a family band since Chad and Evan married sisters who are cousins to Rick and Dustin (father and son).

All the songs on this CD are accomplished acoustical constructs. You have to listen to them all to choose your favorites. I’m having a hard time. There are nine (count ‘em, nine!) originals among the 13 songs on this CD, with 4 different authors. Whew... talk about creativity! And the four covers are mostly obscure songs, not often covered, so what you get is not just a rehash of the same old stuff. “The Ol’ Double Diamond” -a hauntingly beautiful story of cowboy stoicism- was written by Gary McMahan from Greeley.

These folks really put their hearts into the music, and -as Dustin says- they are totally invested in this CD. The songs are about life’s ups and downs. They draw you in and tug on your emotions. They play with you. They draw you up to soar along with the melodies. And they leave you wanting more.
- Pow'r Pickin'

One of the best versions of Blue Moon of Kentucky you'll ever hear. The only thing better would be to hear Lonesome Traveler perform it live. - iTunes - Bluegrass Lover