Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Taking to the Blue Highway
Awards and accolades abound for this bluegrass band, which is about to celebrate its 15th anniversary.
Courtesy Blue Highway
Podcast
Tim Stafford
- We stream some Blue Highway songs, including the upcoming "Bleeding for a Little Peace of Mind," and talk about the 15-year-old band.
More podcasts
Live: Blue Highway
- When: 7:30 p.m. Friday (doors open at 7 p.m.)
- Where: Jefferson Center
- How much: $20 advance; $25 at show; $70 VIP tickets include special reception, meet and greet with the band
- Contact: 345-2550, jeffcenter.org, bluehighwayband.com
UPDATE: Blue Highway, expecting poor weather this weekend, has postponed its scheduled Friday night show at Jefferson Center.
When bluegrass guitarist and singer Tim Stafford left Alison Krauss and Union Station 17 years ago, he had no inkling he would sniff that kind of success again.
The band had just started to heat up, having won the International Bluegrass Music Association's entertainer of the year award in 1991. Even greater success was coming.
But Stafford had other priorities. He had a newborn son in 1992, after having been on the road for 340 days the previous year. He knew he needed to spend real, quality time with the boy, Daniel. So he began looking for players who didn't want to spend so much time on the road, who wouldn't want to count on one band for their living.
Within two years, he had formed his group, Blue Highway, with Jason Burleson (banjo, guitar, mandolin), Rob Ickes (Dobro), Shawn Lane (mandolin, fiddle, vocals) and Wayne Taylor (bass, vocals).
The band -- a two-time Grammy nominee and winner of multiple IBMA awards, multiple Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America awards and a Dove award -- has done more than sniff at success. Blue Highway is celebrating its 15th year with a concert Friday night at Jefferson Center's Shaftman Hall.
"No. Naaaaw," Stafford said when asked if he had expected any of this when he made the decision to leave Union Station. "That was really the farthest thing from my mind. It was really just a way to keep on playing bluegrass at as high a level as I could. ... I was playing with some really, really high-quality players when I was with Union Station. It's tough to go back. Nothing against part-time pickers, but it's hard to go back and just play with anybody.
"So I was really lucky that I was able to hook up with these guys. I feel like they're just right up there with those other guys."
A lasting combination
He got an inkling early on of what might be coming for the band. It was recording its first record, "It's a Long, Long Road" (Rebel), and Stafford was listening to Lane and Taylor singing together on the title cut.
"I thought, man, this could be really good," he said in a phone interview from his home near Kingsport, Tenn. "These guys have got a great blend."
The finished record was the IBMA's album of the year in 1996, and the band won several other awards that year, including IBMA emerging artist.
"Things just sort of took off, and I guess from that point we knew it would be more than a temporary band, a part-time group," he said.
That success has continued. Dobro man Ickes has won his IBMA instrumental category 11 times, the most of any bluegrass musician. The title cut of the band's 2008 CD, "Through the Window of a Train," won best song at that year's awards show. The band has also received honors for its gospel music performances.
And it has done all of this with essentially the same lineup, a rarity in bluegrass music circles. Only banjoist Burleson left the band -- for a couple of years in the late 1990s, before returning.
How has Blue Highway managed such consistency over the years?
"It took the right guys, really, with the right attitudes -- people that didn't want to be road dogs and make all their living just from this band," said Stafford, who also does session work, production and songwriting for other artists when not doing at least 50 dates a year with the band. "Another factor is the fact that I think we all kind of have the same favorite artists. We like the same stuff."
It's good stuff, too. Tony Rice, David Grisman, J.D. Crowe, New Grass Revival, Seldom Scene, The Country Gentlemen, Django Reinhardt.
"I think that translates into arrangements," he said. "We don't even talk much about it. Everybody just knows when it's a good idea and when it's not, what a song needs, and we usually agree on that pretty quickly."
Son is also a musician
The band's next record, "Some Day: The 15th Anniversary Collection" (Rounder), comes out Jan. 19.
It will include a new recording of "Some Day," one of the band's most popular tunes. "Wondrous Love," a spiritual number that won the band both an IBMA and a Dove, is in the mix. Also featured will be two new songs: Lane's "As Cold and Lonesome As Can Be" and "Bleeding for a Little Peace of Mind," which Stafford co-wrote with Darrell Scott. Scott sings the latter.
Meanwhile, son Daniel is growing up. He's nearly 18 now, and he plays trombone, bass guitar and keyboards, Stafford said. He loves rock 'n' roll and classical music and is into marching band and other school band ensembles.
"But he's not really into bluegrass," his dad said. "That's cool."
