Detour Bluegrass

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!

Creepin’ up the Charts

admin — Sun, 30 May 2010 15:00:25 +0000

The crew is pretty excited, because we moved up a few slots to #26 on BU’s national bluegrass DJ survey for June — check out the playlist and listen to the show. And now we’re #33, up from #35, in the top 50 for cashbox’s national roots survey of bluegrass music!

If you’d like to help us reach a larger audience — and maybe continue to move up that chart! — feel free to request airplay from your favorite local, Internet, or satellite stations. Sirius/XM subscribers, you can call Bluegrass Junction at 1-877-98-BANJO or request a song online.

Detour breaks onto the national charts!

admin — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 21:01:22 +0000

Today came the news that our recording of Jeff’s “My Life Just Ain’t a Bluegrass Song” is #30 on the Bluegrass Unlimited National Survey for May 2010! So there we are, with some great company: Sam Bush, Lou Reid, The Grascals, Claire Lynch, the Gibson Brothers, Alecia Nugent, Adam Steffey… It’s quite an accomplishment for a band on an independent record label to get this much airplay alongside the biggies in this business, like Rounder and Pinecastle. We’re feelin’ purty good ’bout it!

Welcome, Missy!

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:25:54 +0000

Team Detour has added a new member! Singer and guitar player Missy Armstrong has joined up with the Detouristas, enriching our vocal lineup with her bluesy and soaring voice. The boys had jammed with Missy many times (including a knockout all-nighter with Back Country’s Janet Beazley and a crowd of great musicians at last year’s Midwest Banjo Camp) that wowed us with the range and power of her voice. Missy and Zak have been pairing up on new material from Jeff, and we’re really excited to head out on the town! Missy has already joined us on stage for recent gigs near our home base in northern lower Michigan, and will be on stage for the entire evening for the first time at our upcoming job at Gopherwood in Cadillac. You can read more about Missy on our bios page.

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!