Detour Bluegrass

Catch us on Bluegrass Junction

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:35:07 +0000

Our tunes are reaching out into the ether — check out Kyle Cantrell’s show on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction later this week. And Bluegrass Gospel Hour will be playing us the week of May 5, too! Other spins are on the way, so stay tuned to that radio dial….

Another studio baby is born — it’s here!

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:38:16 +0000

The Detour gang is all a-flutter now that the latest album, A Better Place, is in our trembling hands! We’re pretty proud of this latest arrival, the product of lots of hours in the studio, on stage, at home rehearsing and arranging the material. We did a release gig as a benefit for Cystic Fibrosis research at Zellie’s Opry House in Howard City last Saturday — played to a full house (packed with Missy’s relatives and friends, plus a host of our other nearby fans and family members) — and over 80 of these disks were snapped up by the end of the evening! Jimmy took the stage with us for rousing versions of Travelin’ That Highway Home and Big Country, while the rest of the band really outdid themselves playing all the CD’s new material (and getting on stage for the first time in many months).

Slide over to our music page to hear a cut and click through to buy!

A Better Place is now available from Elderly Instruments, iTunes, CDBaby, and direct from us at performances. Pretty soon you’ll also be able to get it through the streaming services — MOG, Spotify, and Rhapsody! Let us know what you think of it, either here or at our Facebook page!

Done!

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:47:52 +0000

Finally — rehearsed, recorded, mixed, mastered, packed, shipped to the plant, our new CD A Better Place sounds terrific and will be in our hands (and, hopefully, yours) very soon! We hope to have them with us when we play Zellie’s Opry House in a couple weeks. The show is a benefit for research on Cystic Fibrosis, a cause dear to the heart of our sound man, Jimmy Kittle. We’ll be putting up a track or two, so keep your browsers peeled….

Back into the studio!

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:52:19 +0000

The Detour crew has been workin’ away in the studio on our next album! So far we are mighty happy with what we’re hearing — lots of fresh stuff from our musical Bard, the inestimable Jeff Rose, plus a great tune from Missy. And watch out, fiddlin’ Pete actually brought a viola to the studio for a couple of cuts… Keep an eye out here and at our Facebook page for more news.

It’s summer!

admin — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:50:03 +0000

The Detouristas are on the prowl, looking forward to a summer of performing and recording! So far it’s been a glorious summer in Michigan, with perfect festival weather all ’round. We had a terrific time playing at the annual Niles bluegrass extravaganza with the Hillbenders, Lonesome Meadow, and our old pals in Special Consensus. Then we joined Seth and May, Corn Fed Girls, Red Tail Ring, and other good friends at the Great Bear Music Festival up the road in Bloomingdale. Now we’re looking forward to returning to our old stomping ground in Manistee for its Roots on the River concert series and then up to East Jordan, near Charlevoix, for an evening concert in the park. Later on we’ll be appearing at the Salt River Acres Bluegrass Festival, Dunegrass, and the Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing. Watch our gig calendar and our Facebook page for updates and word from the Detour fans out there! The band is working up new material from Jeff’s famous catalog of great tunes and devising some pretty cool new arrangements of our existing stuff, so please come by, have a listen, and stop for a shake & howdy!

A great night at The Ark with the Gibson Brothers

admin — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:44:46 +0000

The Detour crew enjoyed a terrific night of music in a wonderful and venerable venue, The Ark, in Ann Arbor, last weekend. Thanks to our new-found friends Leigh and Eric Gibson we had the opportunity to open the evening by unveiling the newest version of the Detour experience, with Jack Grant on the bass and Missy Armstrong pushing the vocal stratosphere. The crowd was warm and friendly on an otherwise chilly night outside. The Gibsons rocked the place, too, and wowed the audience with some new tunes to come out on their upcoming album. Backstage, Jeff got to swap mandolins for a jam with Joe Walsh, who also joined in on some impromptu gospel tunes with Missy.

Fan photo of Detour Bluegrass performing at The Ark, Dec 4 2010

Another turn in the road that lies ahead: we’ll miss you, Zak!

admin — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 22:45:26 +0000

As the spectacular colors of a Michigan autumn begin to fade and signal the approach of a new season, it’s a bittersweet time for Detour. After a terrifically successful year that saw the addition of Missy Armstrong to the group and our appearance on the national charts, the band is living up to its name and forging a new path.

Bassist and vocalist Zak Bunce has parted ways with Detour due to a recent promotion at his “day job.” Zak is now the Manager of McLain Cycle and Fitness in Cadillac, Michigan, and will need to be onsite six days a week. We wish Zak great success in his new endeavor and encourage you to stop in and see him for all your cycle needs.

While Zak will be missed, both personally and musically, we have no doubt that Detour will continue to break new ground in bluegrass, satisfying our current dedicated fan base while drawing new crowds.

Driving the rhythm at our next gig will be Jack Grant, a tremendous bassist from the Grand Rapids area. Jack is no stranger to the Michigan music scene, and those of you who’ve followed Midwest bluegrass for a while may remember him pickin’ and singin’ with Jeff and Scott in the Porkypines. After a sojourn to the west, Jack is happy to be back in Michigan and playing with his old buddies.

Invigorated by the recent changes, we are reinterpreting some old favorites, and Jeff has been inspired to write some new tunes. This newly rekindled energy will certainly be evident on our third release, which we’ll soon start working on at Scott’s Frontier Recording.

Please join us at Mona Shores School in Muskegon on Saturday, November 6, and give Jack a big shake and howdy. We’ll be making our second appearance with the Mona Shores Fiddlers at their ninth annual Fiddle Festival. These talented middle and high school students will knock your boots off, and we’re excited to be sharing the stage with them again. The concert begins at 7 p.m. with the Fiddlers, followed by Detour, then a monster jam. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students and senior citizens and may be purchased at Meyer Music in Muskegon and the Healthy Pantry in Whitehall or at the door. Click here to learn more.

We hope to see you on the road that lies ahead!

Steady as She Goes…

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:05:42 +0000

Our single, “My Life Just Ain’t a Bluegrass Song” is still a hit with bluegrass radio listeners — this month it’s up to #13 on the BU national survey and #18 on Bluegrass Music Profiles. We’re keepin’ it steady on the cashbox national bluegrass survey this month, at #39. Jeff, Missy, and Jimmy were down at the IBMA annual conference earlier this month and picked up on a lot of Detour buzz!

Chartwatch

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:38:37 +0000

The Detour crew has been celebrating our climb up the BG charts — “My Life Just Ain’t a Bluegrass Song” is now #17 on the Bluegrass Unlimited national survey this month, our fifth month on that benchmark chart! And we’ve shown up on the Bluegrass Music Profiles national chart, #26 in September!

The Pennsylvania Invasion

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:44:02 +0000

Missy Armstrong duets with Dale Ann Bradley -- courtesy Jimmy Kittle

The Detour crew took its chart-busting (#22 this month on the BU national survey!) road show into the Keystone State last weekend for some great music at the Out Among the Stars Bluegrass Festival in Benton, the heart of the Alleghenies. We had a great time jamming with Joe Walsh of the awesome Gibson Brothers and visiting with former Detourista Mike Sumner, now playing with Dale Ann Bradley. The number one taker for Weird Moment of the Trip was at an I-80 rest area in Pennsylvania, where a state worker with a chip on his shoulder stopped Jeff, Peter, and Scott from exercising their constitutional right to play frisbee. Scott was well into preparing his closing argument for Detour v. State of Pennsylvania when we subsequently learned from coworkers at a later rest area that this guy was, to put it mildly, incorrect.

But the real highlight of the trip was having Dale Ann Bradley join us on stage for a stirring rendition of I’ve Just Seen the Rock of Ages with our own Missy Armstrong. The vocal blend was just heavenly! Thank you, Dale Ann, and thank you OATS for a great musical weekend!

For some great photos of our performance there, check out the photo albums posted online by the OATS photographer!