Detour Bluegrass

Fun at the Fiddle

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:42:01 +0000

Thanks to all our fans who packed the Unitarian Universalist Church in East Lansing last Friday for our gig at the The Ten Pound Fiddle concert series! The band had a grand old time and we loved the chance to visit with friends from the Lansing area. The Fiddle is celebrating its 35th year of great acoustic music in mid-Michigan — we hope everyone can get out to enjoy the concerts this year, which continue to generate rave reviews (especially from MSU students, who can get in for five bucks, a real deal!).

The reviews are comin’ in!

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:58:49 +0000

Bluegrass music’s premier publication, Bluegrass Unlimited, reviews our CD The Road That Lies Ahead this month, and it looks like we pass muster! “An extremely good contemporary bluegrass recording,” they tell us — “one full of attractive arrangements, earcatching touches such as the upward vocal slide into the chorus of the title cut, sharp New Grass Revivallike rhythmic punctuations, fine soloing, and tight harmonies.”

Back ta da UP, hey!

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:31:35 +0000

Labor Day weekend the Detouristas invaded the Upper Peninsula again, to play for a concert series in the beautifully-restored theater in Crystal Falls, MI. Some of our friends happened through town a week before and took a snap of the marquee. The audience was terrific, and the theater a stunning house to play in. Thank you, Crystal Falls!

It’s festival season

admin — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:35:39 +0000

You really know it’s festival season when work becomes play, and you get a chance to spend time with fellow musicians just enjoying the sounds you can make together. Yesterday the Detour gang descended on Salt River Acres for a rousing good time at the 31st annual Salt River Acres Bluegrass Festival. A great roster of local and regional bands entertained a crowd that occasionally had to scurry for cover from the raindrops that made it through the magnificent canopy of trees in front of the stage. We arrived in time to find out that because of cancellations by other acts we had the opportunity to play three rather than two sets, so we teamed up with our good friends in Hardline Drive and Missy Kay of the Missy K Band to do a few numbers that really stirred up the audience. One of the great things about this music is how easy and enjoyable it is to share — to blend voices, instruments, ideas in an impromptu setting! Missy, Toni Erskine, and Danielle Smith sang some great harmonies together. Awesome! Maybe there’s a tour in the making here somewhere?

Summer roads

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:32:00 +0000

After a winter that never seemed to end, so far it’s been an idyllic summer in Michigan this year, with gentle evening breezes to ward off the bugs, warm but not blistering days, and mild humidity — perfect pickin’ weather! The Detour gang has been wandering Michigan’s summer roads enjoying the opportunity to play outdoor festivals, concerts in the park, and even a lovely July 4th birthday party on the shores of Little Traverse Bay. At each stop we find cheerful faces and light hearts eager to enjoy bluegrass music. And there’s been a few “firsts” — like the unique opportunity to be joined on stage by a turkey while Peter sawed a toe-tappin’ version of “Turkey in the Straw.” We look forward to the chance to play for you — come join us at any of our upcoming appearances. We’re delighted that we’ll be part of the reunion celebration for Cabbage Crik, a very popular bluegrass band from the 1970s, at the Green Food Bluegrass Festival in Saugatuck on July 19. The following weekend we’ll be up near Oil City at the Salt River Acres Bluegrass Festival, joining a number of fellow Michigan bluegrass bands. And we’re really looking forward to our performance at the ever-popular Wheatland Music Festival in September. Let’s hope the weather holds!

Come pick on Cystic Fibrosis!

admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:13:54 +0000

Well, the Detouristas have been really busy lately playing to packed houses in Lansing, Thompsonville, and near Manistee. Our concert at Elderly was a blast; we got to run through a number of tunes from our new CD and playing in a room filled with great instruments and enthusiastic musicians is always inspiring. Up at the Brown Town Hall near Manistee we held a CD party for local friends, and filled the place with happy listeners. The evening’s proceeds — some $500 and change — all went to the Community Table, and we had a great time playing and visiting with fans.

We invite you to join us and a parade of Michigan bluegrass bands at the Pickin’ on Cystic Fibrosis benefit at Dogwood Center in Fremont on Saturday April 4 — details in our gig calendar and at the concert website. Some of our favorite local musicians turn out for this event in a theater with great acoustics. The event is organized by our sound man, Jimmy Kittle, himself a fixture on the bluegrass scene in Michigan. We look forward to seeing you there!

If you’re in Lansing on March 21st…

admin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:05:20 +0000

…then come see us at Elderly Instruments (see our gig calendar for location and details), where we’re doing a set starting at 12.30 and will be around to sign CDs and do a shake & howdy. And speaking of that CD, we’re purty excited about it. For the cover and design we went back to the great Glenn Wolff, who did such wonderful and creative work for Radio Hill; we are really pleased with the results. And in this year of important transitions for our band, we are very proud that we were able again to capture on the same project the inspired playing of Mike Sumner before he headed to his new digs in Nashville, and the great Kevin Gaugier in his inaugural outing with us in the studio. Write and let us know what you think of the latest Detour!

Up to the frozen North

admin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:44:30 +0000

The Detouristas packed their woolies and headed for Copper Country this weekend (Jan. 31) to play the Keweenaw Folk Festival at the historic Calumet Theater. What an incredible place — it opened in 1900 and became the region’s main attraction for opera, film, drama, and music at the height of the copper boom. The acoustics in the restored theater were tremendous, and we had a terrific evening playing for such an appreciative crowd. The trip also gave us the chance once again to sample our official cuisine — whitefish baskets — while immersing ourselves in Yooper history courtesy of our tour guide and pundit Scott, ably assisted by Zak, who seems to have a relative living around every corner.

Be sure to get on our mailing list to keep up with band doings! Looks like we’ll be at Elderly Instruments in March to promote our new CD, and the summer schedule is filling in.

Our next release is on its way…

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:48:30 +0000

After weeks of hard production work, our intrepid engineer and guitar player Scott got our CD off to the presses this week! We’re all pretty excited; we hope to see it in its jewel cases, ready for distribution and sale by the end of this month.

Can’t wait? Go to our music page and listen to a couple of tracks from it!

Another Cooper’s Glen Spectacular

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Neither a foot of new snow, nor sleet, nor dark of night kept the Detour gang and a few hundred happy pickers and listeners from crowding into the Radisson Hotel in Kalamazoo last weekend for the latest Cooper’s Glen Music Festival. This was our third outing at this terrific event sponsored by the Great Lakes Acoustic Music Association and other organizations in Kalamazoo, and we had a great time! Our ol’ pal Mike Sumner breezed in from Nashville with the Randy Kohrs Band to play a rollicking set and do some late-night jamming with the Detour boys. And good friend Joel Mabus did an impromptu set featuring the golden mandolin tones of our own Jeff Rose when headliner Jim Lauderdale was stranded in Chicago by a winter storm. Now we have to take special pains to keep Joel from luring Jeff away onto the road, the two of them sounded so good together!

We also were blown away by the incredible music of the Hot Club of Detroit and the Brothers Kalamazov of Kalamazoo. Kevin had warned us for weeks that the Brothers Kalamazov are a blazingly original bunch, working through a pile of acoustic and brass instruments on the stage and swapping them around with such ease that we lost track of who could play what. The Hot Club did the finest renditions of gypsy jazz I’ve ever heard since my Django/Stephane listening days too many years ago.

Many thanks to our fans for their kind words and avid support at our shows! And a big vote of gratitude to Kathy Nichols, Mark Sahlgren, and all of the GLAMA folks who put on this shindig! — Doc Fiddle