Colorado quartet, Head for the Hills’ first official music video featuring their song “Take Me Back” from their studio new album Blue Ruin has been debuted on Relix.com. Written in the great tradition of sunny sounding bluegrass songs with morose lyrics, “Take Me Back” is about being born at the wrong time. Breakneck fiddle work plays counterpoint to a probing look at loss of innocence and longing for days past in this modern bluegrass tour de force.
Head for the Hills has a simple but continuing dilemma they can’t seem to resolve. Specialists have been hired to no avail and the predicament persists: how does one describe the multifarious music of Head for the Hills? Among the top contenders are catchy turns of phrase like post-bluegrass, progressive string music, modern acoustic noir, and bluegrass bricolage. “On top of modern string music,” (Bluegrass Today), “Cutting edge,” (Drew Emmitt) or “Best in Colorado Bluegrass” (Westword Showcase Readers Poll).
Strip away the artful descriptors and you have a forward thinking group of {mostly} acoustic musicians drawing on eclectic influences, tastes and styles. They didn’t grow up immersed in bluegrass music but came to it later in life, with each other. The result is a sound based in bluegrass that reaches into indie rock, jazz, hip hop, world and folk to stitch together fresh songs that bridge the divide between past and future acoustic music. Think Meta-fictional sea shanties. Pop-infused newgrass murder ballads and urbane lyricism. Twang and punch.Blue Ruin finds Head for the Hills inspired by love and misery and comic books.
Summer tour highlights for Head for the Hills have included performances at RockyGrass, Northwest String Summit, the band’s debut in Alaska for Salmonstock Music Festival. They also hosted a ‘Blue Ruin’ album release block party in the streets of Denver, CO with Breckenridge Brewery.
H4TH also collaborated on a custom craft beer with Odell Brewing Company (Ft. Collins, CO) named ‘Head for the Hills – Colorado Amber Ale’ and also was voted “Best in Bluegrass” for the fourth consecutive year by the Denver Westword Magazine via a reader’s based poll.
Head for the Hills is Adam Kinghorn on Guitar and vocals, Joe Lessard on violin and vocals, Matt Loewen on upright bass and vocals and Mike Chappell on acoustic and electric mandolins.
Stay tuned for more about the new release on the band’s website and social networks.www.headforthehillsmusic.com
