CMT Blog: Archive

Hello, loyal CMT blog readers. While last weekend half the world was at Bonnaroo, we were at the Georgia Mountain Roots Music Festival in Hiawassee, Ga. We were part of a great line-up including the Greencards, Sam Bush, The Lovell Sisters and our favorite, Tim O'Brien. Tim played a solo set earlier in the day, but the highlight for us was the full set we did with Tim. We rambled through much of his catalog, including "Tombstone Blues" from his Grammy-winning album, Red on Blonde. Sam Bush was also in great form in spite of losing his father Charlie earlier in the week. Our condolences go out to Sam, whose father "introduced him to baseball and the fiddle." I guess we all owe Charlie a debt of gratitude.

Our new record has been out a little over a week now and it's getting great reviews. Our CD release party at the Station Inn went according to plan. We played the record in its entirety in the evening for media, then after a break for Mexican food we played a full show.  Both segments were broadcast live on Sirius Radio. We've been working with our new sound-guru Drew and he's got the band sounding better than ever. We're headed up to Washington state this weekend, then we're pretty much off the road for a couple weeks before gearing up for our big summer tour. We'll be in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., NYC and at Grey Fox, Rockygrass and Winnipeg Folk Festivals.

The band will also debut our new merchandise item, the Hacky Sack, in July. When you travel with seven guys, you spend a bunch of time waiting around, standing in a circle, so Jeremy got the idea we should Hack. We're now completely obsessed and we hope to pass that obsession on to the entire music community. We'll have our signature sacks with us on the road and available through the Web site. - Travis Book