The song “Rockets” – track #2 on the band’s most recent double disc release Silver Sky-Deluxe Edition (Sci Fidelity Records, October 16, 2012) – potently demonstrates a band blurring the lines between bluegrass playing technique, pop songwriting sensibilities and country music storytelling. The video, like the song/album, was produced (and filmed and edited) by unlikely partner – hip-hop producer Billy Hume (Ludacris, Nas). Look for The Infamous Stringdusters on tour this spring and summer. The band’s complete list of tour dates is included below.
“Rockets” – co-written by ‘Dusters’ bassist Travis Book and his wife, accomplished singer/songwriter Sarah Siskind – is about the potential of humans today. As Book explains, “This is a heavy time for our country and for our planet, but we can all be and do whatever we want. The range of potential human experiences is like no other time in history. Like a rocket streaking through a silver sky toward endless space, there’s almost limitless potential.”
It’s no surprise The Infamous Stringdusters are feeling their limitless potential. March 2013 marked 18 months since the band was granted release from their contract with Sugar Hill Records. The “Rockets” video is an official release of the band’s own High Country recording label, and serves to debut a new partnership – between The Infamous Stringdusters, Billy Hume, and their artist management company, The Artist Farm – that will help propel High Country Recordings into the future; a future where, for The ‘Dusters and their High Country label mates, creativity and music lead the way.
High Country is also what The Infamous Stringdusters have taken to calling their music; it is “the centering spirit behind everything they do.” “The High Country,” says Dusters’ banjo player Chris Pandolfi, “is a beautiful, inspiring spot, wherever it may be.”
Fresh off a filming for PBS’s Bluegrass Underground (the episode will air in Fall 2013), The Infamous Stringdusters’ elaborate live show is anything but traditional. As the New York Times recently reviewed, “[The Infamous Stringdusters’] toe-tapping rhythms, torrents of 16th notes and the contours of Appalachian melodies are their clear foundations. But genre doesn’t hold them back…What sounds casual and good-timey…is intricately plotted and arranged, attentive to the textures of each voice and string. The Infamous Stringdusters don’t leave bluegrass behind; they’re stretching it from within.”
The Infamous Stringdusters’ constant, relentless, revelatory musical evolution is on display throughout the band’s new double disc release Silver Sky-Deluxe Edition. Working with hip-hop producer Billy Hume (Ludacris, Nas) – Silver Sky finds The Infamous Stringdusters’ powerful rhythms and vocal melodies at the forefront of the music. Paired with We’ll Do It Live – a seamless live recording culled from four epic 2011 performances – Silver Sky-Deluxe Edition eloquently demonstrates a band whose artistic voice has fully emerged, and offers a riveting glimpse of just how, and where, The Infamous Stringdusters are leading the bluegrass revolution. Silver Sky-Deluxe Edition is now available at national retail for the first time, and is exclusively available online, also for the first time, at The Infamous Stringdusters’ website and at SCI Fidelity Records’ online store.
The Infamous Stringdusters hit the road this spring and summer, including first visits to San Francisco and Seattle since the release of Silver Sky-Deluxe Edition, and to festivals DelFest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and All Good, among others.
The Infamous Stringdusters complete list of confirmed tour dates is as follows:
Friday, April 19 Greenfield Lake Amphitheater Wilmington NC
Saturday, April 20 Asheville Earth Day Asheville NC
Sunday, April 21 US National Whitewater Center Charlotte NC
Monday, April 22 Radford University Radford VA
Thursday, May 2 The Rio Theatre Santa Cruz, CA
Friday, May 3 Terrapin Crossroads San Rafael CA
Saturday, May 4 Great American Music Hall San Francisco CA
Tuesday, May 7 Harlow’s Sacramento CA
Thursday, May 9 The Rogue Theatre Grant’s Pass OR
Friday, May 10 WOW Hall Eugene OR
Saturday, May 11 The Neptune Seattle WA
Thursday, May 23 – Tuesday, February 26 Delfest Cumberland MD
Sunday, June 23 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Telluride CO
Friday, June 28 Friday Cheers @ Brown’s Island Richmond VA
Friday, July 5 – Saturday, July 6 High Sierra Music Festival Quincy CA
Saturday, July 13 Crystal Coast Music Festival Morehead City NC
Thursday, July 18 The Wonder Bar Asbury Park NJ
Friday, July 19 Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival Oak Hill NY
Saturday, July 20 All Good Music Festival Thornville OH
Friday, July 26 – Saturday, July 27 Floydfest Floyd VA
Sunday, August 11 Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival Alta WY
Friday, October 11 – Sunday, October 13 The Festy Experience at Devils Backbone Roseland VA
Additional dates to be announced.
