Nu-Blu
Siler City, North Carolina, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | INDIE
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By Chuck Dauphin, Nashville | July 18, 2013 4:00 PM EDT
BILLBOARD July 18, 2013
It’s a major milestone for Rural Rhythm’s Nu-Blu, who are celebrating a decade together in 2013. According to the group’s Daniel Routh, it’s an anniversary worth celebrating, and the progressive bluegrass group is doing so with a new album, appropriately titled “Ten.”
“We are so excited,” Routh tells Billboard. “This is one that we’ve been anticipating and collecting material for awhile. Celebrating a ten-year anniversary is always a big point in a musician’s career, and being able to put the album out to coincide with it is very cool.”
Comprised of wife Carolyn Routh on bass and lead vocals, Levi Austin on the banjo, and Austin Koerner on the mandolin, Daniel says the band takes somewhat of a different approach to going into the studio to record. “I think one of the things that makes us unique is that we engineer, mix, master, and produce all of our own material. We actually own a studio, and we do all of our recording there. It’s a different approach that we take to material. When we listen to demos, unless it’s a song we’ve written, we pick out the songs we like and what we think will be a good fit. We go straight in, chart them out, and record them. So, what you’re hearing on the CD sometimes is the first time through that we’re playing these songs. I don’t know how many other bands do that, it might be common, but for us, it really allows us to capture the emotion of the song a little more.”
One of the highlights of the album is the heartbreaking “Without A Kiss,” co-written by Michael Mahler of the Texas country band Wildhorses. “That was the first song we’ve recorded that has been written by him. Carolyn was the first person to hear that song. It was pitched to us, and she listened to the demo, and when she heard it, she started crying. She called me, and I thought something was wrong. When we heard it, we knew for sure that was going on the record.”
The song is making an impact with their fans already. “That’s actually becoming a crowd favorite. Folks are already coming up to the record table after the shows wanting to buy the CD just for that song.”
What is Nu-Blu’s secret to surviving the crazy world of the music business for the past ten years? “I don’t know that there is a secret to it. It takes a lot of hard work,” stresses Routh. “It’s easy for any band to get comfortable. If you get comfortable with where you’re at in the industry – no matter what level you’re on, you’re never going to move forward. I think that for us, that’s a big thing. We constantly keep pushing for the next level. We’re goal setters. We know some of those goals, it will take years to reach, but I think that having a mark to look forward to is huge. The other part is the chemistry within our band. Our personalities balance each other well, and all four have a part in producing the record. We’re really hard on each other. Sometimes, it’s brutal. But, it makes the final product better, and that’s what we care about. When the listener puts the CD in, we want it to be a total experience, not just one song that might be good for radio. We want them to go ‘Wow, the whole CD was awesome.’ That’s our goal.”
Part of that spirit comes from their relationship with their label, which gives them total artistic control. “With them, they don’t get involved in that at all. They say ‘Whatever you guys bring to us is what we’re going to put out.’ They leave it totally up to the artists across the board to do what we want to do. That’s cool, because sometimes we do some things that aren’t bluegrass, especially on this album. “It’s A Good Day To Be With You,” is a song on there that was written by Trey Bruce that is as far as you can get from bluegrass, but it’s a great song. We believe a good song deserves to be recorded. That’s cool to be able to have that freedom,” he says with pride. - Billboard Magazine
It has been ten years since bluegrass husband and wife team, Carolyn and Daniel Routh founded Nu-Blu. The pair are joined on the album that celebrates the decade together, Ten, by long time band members Austin Koerner (mandolin) and Levi Austin (banjo/guitar). Outside of a trio or tunes sung by husband, Daniel, and a track with Levi Austin taking the vocal, the songs on Ten are voice-helmed by the lady hauling the upright bass into the next gig, Carolyn Routh. Her voice is full; Carolyn fires notes and emotion down the same barrel. Her delivery captures loss in “Trains I Didn’t Take” and the loneliness of a traveling musician is laid out on “That Road”, as guest fiddler Jim VanCleve duets his instrument with Levi’s banjo.
Ten continues to stretch Nu-Blu’s bluegrass into a more expanded form of the genre. The group is not here to change the basics of bluegrass, but they are intent on making sure that the style, like all musical niches, has some room to grow for future pickers. The string band that is at the heart of Nu-Blu adds in folk and other roots sounds for Ten. It was just a matter of time before Carolyn Routh let out her not-so-secret Pat Benatar crush, and Nu-Blu offer a gentle reminiscence for “Shadows of the Night” that gives a more seductive request than the in-your-face spandex-tight demands of the original. Nu-Blu should consider an endorsement from Kleenex or another tissue company for Ten, particularly for the song “Without A Kiss”. The darkness of the mine grave that took her husband does not bring the woman into the same depths. She feels death,, and sees its results all around her yet in her head and heart the power of what two people have created together through commitment to each other lives on, knowing that “death is not as strong as love like this”, and she knows that her other half will always be around ‘cause “he never said goodbye without a kiss”. - The Alternate Root Magazine
It has been ten years since bluegrass husband and wife team, Carolyn and Daniel Routh founded Nu-Blu. The pair are joined on the album that celebrates the decade together, Ten, by long time band members Austin Koerner (mandolin) and Levi Austin (banjo/guitar). Outside of a trio or tunes sung by husband, Daniel, and a track with Levi Austin taking the vocal, the songs on Ten are voice-helmed by the lady hauling the upright bass into the next gig, Carolyn Routh. Her voice is full; Carolyn fires notes and emotion down the same barrel. Her delivery captures loss in “Trains I Didn’t Take” and the loneliness of a traveling musician is laid out on “That Road”, as guest fiddler Jim VanCleve duets his instrument with Levi’s banjo.
Ten continues to stretch Nu-Blu’s bluegrass into a more expanded form of the genre. The group is not here to change the basics of bluegrass, but they are intent on making sure that the style, like all musical niches, has some room to grow for future pickers. The string band that is at the heart of Nu-Blu adds in folk and other roots sounds for Ten. It was just a matter of time before Carolyn Routh let out her not-so-secret Pat Benatar crush, and Nu-Blu offer a gentle reminiscence for “Shadows of the Night” that gives a more seductive request than the in-your-face spandex-tight demands of the original. Nu-Blu should consider an endorsement from Kleenex or another tissue company for Ten, particularly for the song “Without A Kiss”. The darkness of the mine grave that took her husband does not bring the woman into the same depths. She feels death,, and sees its results all around her yet in her head and heart the power of what two people have created together through commitment to each other lives on, knowing that “death is not as strong as love like this”, and she knows that her other half will always be around ‘cause “he never said goodbye without a kiss”. - The Alternate Root Magazine
Nu-Blu Celebrates a Decade of Music With ‘Ten’
Katherine Cole
August 23, 2013
Bands come and go so quickly these days that it’s not often you find many celebrating five years of togetherness, let alone a decade. But that’s just what North Carolina’s modern bluegrass band Nu-Blu is doing with their new CD “Ten.”
Carolyn Routh sings lead on the majority of the tracks of Nu-Blu’s “Ten.” Her pure vocals ring out so smooth and strong, it’s hard to imagine that Routh’s voice was almost silenced by a series of strokes in November 2003, soon after the band was formed. At first, she was unable to talk or use the right side of her body, but with the help of the band’s guitarist-and now her husband-Daniel Routh, Carolyn battled back. Seeing her play and sing today, you’d never know the red-haired bass player had ever been ill.
In addition to the Rouths, Nu-Blu is made up of Levi Austin on banjo and Austin Koener’s mandolin.
While the band plays the same instruments as the originators of the bluegrass music did back in the 1940s, few of songs on Nu-Blu’s fifth album have that twangy old-school sound.
What’s Nu-Blu’s secret to surviving and staying on the road for 10 years when so many bands fall by the wayside?
Carolyn Routh says you have to love every minute of the job. Singing is all she’s ever wanted to do. Even so, being on the road constantly takes her away from family and friends. It’s the subject of “That Road.”
“That’s my dream job and I love every minute of it. I’m also a real homebody. And I love my family and I love my home,” she said. “This song lets me be in both places. When I perform this song, I’m thinking about how much fun I’m having right there on that stage and, at the same time, how much I’m missing my family back at home. The song sort of bridges that gap for me.”
Nu-Blu is celebrating 10 years together not only with a new CD, but a busy schedule that sees the band booked throughout the United States well into next year – including a stint on a Caribbean cruise ship next winter. They hope to add overseas dates next year; until then you’ll have to be satisfied with all the live videos they’re posting to YouTube and their website.
While some of the songs on Nu-Blu’s “Ten” might be considered more pop or country, the albums sole instrumental track, “Giant Squid,” leaves no question that the band’s roots are firmly in the bluegrass camp. - Voice Of America
Nu-Blu Celebrates a Decade of Music With ‘Ten’
Katherine Cole
August 23, 2013
Bands come and go so quickly these days that it’s not often you find many celebrating five years of togetherness, let alone a decade. But that’s just what North Carolina’s modern bluegrass band Nu-Blu is doing with their new CD “Ten.”
Carolyn Routh sings lead on the majority of the tracks of Nu-Blu’s “Ten.” Her pure vocals ring out so smooth and strong, it’s hard to imagine that Routh’s voice was almost silenced by a series of strokes in November 2003, soon after the band was formed. At first, she was unable to talk or use the right side of her body, but with the help of the band’s guitarist-and now her husband-Daniel Routh, Carolyn battled back. Seeing her play and sing today, you’d never know the red-haired bass player had ever been ill.
In addition to the Rouths, Nu-Blu is made up of Levi Austin on banjo and Austin Koener’s mandolin.
While the band plays the same instruments as the originators of the bluegrass music did back in the 1940s, few of songs on Nu-Blu’s fifth album have that twangy old-school sound.
What’s Nu-Blu’s secret to surviving and staying on the road for 10 years when so many bands fall by the wayside?
Carolyn Routh says you have to love every minute of the job. Singing is all she’s ever wanted to do. Even so, being on the road constantly takes her away from family and friends. It’s the subject of “That Road.”
“That’s my dream job and I love every minute of it. I’m also a real homebody. And I love my family and I love my home,” she said. “This song lets me be in both places. When I perform this song, I’m thinking about how much fun I’m having right there on that stage and, at the same time, how much I’m missing my family back at home. The song sort of bridges that gap for me.”
Nu-Blu is celebrating 10 years together not only with a new CD, but a busy schedule that sees the band booked throughout the United States well into next year – including a stint on a Caribbean cruise ship next winter. They hope to add overseas dates next year; until then you’ll have to be satisfied with all the live videos they’re posting to YouTube and their website.
While some of the songs on Nu-Blu’s “Ten” might be considered more pop or country, the albums sole instrumental track, “Giant Squid,” leaves no question that the band’s roots are firmly in the bluegrass camp. - Voice Of America
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Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
It was scary, you know. But this is our dream, and were gonna be happy doing what were doing. And now, weve got our tenth anniversary this year. Daniel Routh, Nu-Blu
To step out and decide to make a living in music takes a tremendous leap of personal and professional courage. For Daniel and Carolyn Routh, however, the husband-and-wife team that founded Nu-Blu, it became a necessity, the way to maintain the life-giving force of their music. Today, even as they continue to grow and reach loftier and bigger goals, they have reason to celebrate: the release of their new project, Ten, on their new record label, Rural Rhythm Records. Along with the project comes a tour that will keep the band on the road entertaining fans new and old through October. The tour is sponsored by QSC Speakers, Peterson Tuners, Neumann Microphones and DAddario Strings, in association with Sam Ash Music Direct.
Nu-Blu, based in Siler City in central North Carolina, is comprised of Carolyn, who handles bass and vocals; Levi Austin on vocals and banjo; Austin Koerner, on mandolin; and Daniel, who is the bands Renaissance Man guitarist, singer, manager, and tour coordinator, among many other roles. The group brings its lively and entertaining version of Americana-bluegrass music to audiences across the nation year-round. Their sound acknowledges the traditional institutions that have shaped it, yet is innovative and daring enough to bring a fresh sparkle to contemporary acoustic music that lands them squarely in the forefront of bands blazing the trail in acoustic entertainment. Influences range from the sounds of original bluegrass pioneers like Earl Scruggs, Jimmy Martin and Lester Flatt to rock bands of the 1980s, and modern contemporary sounds such as Alison Krauss and Union Station. Carolyns soprano vocal approach might be described as similar to Ms. Krauss, except she carries a phrasing and emotional elegance that shows a clear originality. Daniel and Levi provide inventive singing to fill out the vocal sound, while all four members present instrumental prowess to impress.
Nu-Blu started back in September 2003 after Carolyn and Daniel, who had played for years in different genres both separately and together, decided to devote their efforts to forming Nu-Blu. Despite challenges that included numerous personnel changes, the folding of their original record label, and even a stroke that left Carolyn unable to speak or move her right side, the Rouths were determined to make Nu-Blu a full-time vehicle for them to bring music to their fans. With the addition of Levi in 2007 and Austin in 2011, the magical sound of Nu-Blu was complete, and as the group continues to build a national fan base, audiences are listening. The band is finding itself more and more at home on the radio charts, most recently with the evocative Martha and Mary, written by Becky Buller and Nancy Cardwell. The stage is now set for the group to continue its chart trend with the songs from Ten.
Whats ahead for Nu-Blu? Plenty, you may believe that. Every year, the band logs more miles on the road than the year before, plays more shows than the year before, sleeps more nights on the bus than the year before. But for Daniel, Carolyn, Levi and Austin, its not a chore, its a way of life. Its not slogging from one venue to the next, its another opportunity to touch their audiences lives with music, that great universal bond which closes the gaps of humanity and brings lightness to hearts, smiles to faces and redemption to souls.
If we can touch somebody on a deep level, says Daniel, and create a moment for them that they always will remember and entertains them, thats gold. If we can say to someone,Hey, check this out. If you like this, youre probably going to like Bill Monroe. You just never knew you did. Its hard work, but if everybody has a good time, plus we get to do what we enjoy, then really, thats why were here.
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