Day: December 29, 2021

The Infamous Stringdusters pick up Grammy nomination for Bluegrass Album of the Year

The Infamous Stringdusters’ new album Toward the Fray will be available February 18, 2022. Photo: google

The Infamous Stringdusters is a progressive acoustic/bluegrass band, who first emerged in 2006, consisting of members Andy Hall (dobro), Chris Pandolfi (banjo), Andy Falco (guitar), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle), and Travis Book (bass). The “Dusters” won three awards at the IBMAs in October 2007 for Emerging Artist of the Year, Album of the Year (for Fork in the Road), and Song of the Year for the album’s title track and in 2018 the band won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album for Laws of Gravity. (The Infamous Stringdusters, 2021)

As the year starts to wind down, the opposite is true for Grammy-Award winning quintet The Infamous Stringdusters, who are dropping their forthcoming album Toward the Fray via Americana Vibes on February 18, 2022. They will be kicking off the year strong with a three night New Year’s Eve run in Richmond, Virginia, all the while celebrating last week’s Grammy nomination for Bluegrass Album of the Year for their 2021 album A Tribute To Bill Monroe. Additionally on the Dusters’ end of the year dance card, the band released Toward the Fray’s second single “Hard Line.”

Fans can now digitally pre-order or pre-save Toward the Fray now at this link. The Dusters also designed new merchandise to celebrate the release of Toward the Fray—including, but not limited to, a Stringdusters North Face jacket, limited edition colored vinyl, and an adorable Toward the Fray teddy bear. Pre-order all of these and more at the Infamous Stringdusters online store.

“This is a song about taking a hard line stance on something, and being so dug in you can’t ever change your mind,” shared Jeremy Garrett. “What a beautiful thing it might be if we could all come to the table, so to speak, once again and have meaningful and truthful discussions about the things going on in our world.” “Hard Line” is available here.

“Hard Line” comes on the heels of the release of the album’s previous single and title track, “Toward the Fray” which was written by guitarist Andy Falco with his dear friend Travis McKeveny who passed away tragically in September 2021.

 

Izaak Opatz’ new song ‘Chinook Wind’

Izaak Opatz deftly compares ex-lover to a tricky natural phenomenon in new song ‘Chinook Wind.’ Photo: google

The most concise  way to describe musician Izaak Opatz is “well-experienced,” but, like his razor-sharp songs, there are deeper details to his life that deserve to be highlighted. Opatz is now back in graduate school at the University of Montana studying Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism at the same school from which he earned a degree over a decade ago. Between his two distinct periods of study, Opatz spent ten summers on a trail crew in Glacier National Park and a stint working in Jonny Fritz’s infamous Los Angeles leather shop. All that is to say, Opatz’ music draws on his “well-experienced” life. (Izaak Opatz, 2021)

Opatz has a new song entitled “Chinook Wind,” a clever comparison between an attempt to get back with an ex and the false-summer warm wind of the Rockies. A catchy, reverb-y guitar hook gives way to a rollicking verse punctuated by stabbing horns before giving way to a half-time feel change in the song’s chorus. Fans of country and Americana will be just as likely to enjoy “Chinook Wind” as those who lean more indie rock or experimental, perpetuating Opatz’ hard-to-describe but easy-to-listen-to style, one that Opatz and his band have dubbed dirtwave. Watch the music video for “Chinook Wind” now and check out Opatz’ op-ed with Talkhouse covering his already-mentioned history and much more at this link. “Chinook Wind” is out now on Mama Bird Recording Co..

“Between the occasionally Muppet-y background vocals and the yackety brass, this song has some ‘Flea Bag’ to it, which suits the wild-goose-chase-of-the-heart it describes. A chinook is an unseasonably warm, dry wind that pours down the east side of the Rockies at the end of winter, sometimes tricking trees into thinking a premature spring is upon them, leading them to pull the sugars from their roots and get ready to bud out, which hurts the trees when winter inevitably reasserts itself. As per the metaphor, I ‘thawed out my resistance’ at the prospect of getting back together with my ex-lover, only to get dinged when it became clear it was a one-off— just a chinook wind.” – Izaak Opatz

On the music video, Opatz says, “Featuring an abundance of sweat, tears, and cream cheese, ‘Chinook Wind’ is the brainchild of Michael T. Workman, who turned my meteorological phenomena-inspired song about a romantic head fake into an absurd, pulpy crime caper, set in the gritty underbelly of Missoula, Montana.”