Archived Story

Open Road - bluegrass buzz
By JOE NICKELL of the Missoulian

If bluegrass music is all about that high-lonesome sound, Bradford Lee Folk is camping solo atop Everest. Folk (who surely has the most appropriate surname in all of folk music) sings in a stratospheric, nasal voice that might seem inapproachable at first; but give him two or three songs, and you may just become convinced that everybody should sing this way. There is something oddly quite warm and affecting about his voice, something that makes you know he'd be a fascinating guy to sit around a campfire with, swapping stories.

That spirit of unpretentious charm pervades the music of Open Road, from the tasty underpinnings provided by bassist Eric Thorin, to the lazy virtuosity of mandolinist Caleb Roberts.

No wonder that this Colorado-based quintet has become the buzz of the traditional bluegrass scene, often mentioned in the same sentence with luminaries like the Stanley Brothers and the Appalachian godfather, Bill Monroe.

Denver newsweekly Westword, in naming the group Best Bluegrass Band for 2002, called Open Road's self-titled debut CD "a bone-chilling masterpiece of Kentucky-grown sound."

These guys are a regular sell-out in Missoula, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that they come through fairly seldom; so come early for their performance at 9 p.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 9, at the Other Side, 1805 Regent. Tickets are $10 in advance (available at Rainbow's End) or at the door, with a $2 surcharge for anyone age 18-20.
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