I remember Mike Bont brought up the idea of whether I could use my cello education and switch to the upright bass, which seemed like a much better idea to me than trying to be a manager.”Īs Bruzza looks back on this, he references Jack Black’s character in School of Rock who converts one of his young students from cello, telling her “You tip it on the side. They had a great bass player but he had another job and kids, so he wasn’t a hungry 20-something who was looking to go for it and get on the road. I went to a little bluegrass festival and my job was to hand out flyers during their set to people who looked interested in attending an upcoming show in Southwest Michigan. “I had just started with them in this sort of ambiguous role when everything changed. I actually wrote a proposal to work for them, which they’ll whip out every once in a while to make fun of me. “I thought that we could come to a mutually beneficial relationship where I would be gaining experience and they would benefit from having someone in their corner. “I approached them to gain experience and get my foot in the door in the music business, whether it be promotion or management,” he says. He also had decided that a career in the music business might be a more satisfying path. By that point, he had started working at Bell’s Brewery where the band would perform on Thursday nights to swelling, swirling audiences. But even when we were playing ‘Mountain Girls’ at an open-mic night, we were thrashing it like rock-and-roll.”īassist Mike Devol began studying classical cello at the age of 8 and continued his schooling at Western Michigan University before he joined Greensky in 2004. But all three were interested in exploring acoustic music together as they simultaneously developed their chops while focusing on bluegrass standards.Įven so, they were doing this with what Hoffman characterizes as “the attitude and gusto of a rock band.” He explains, “We were sharing a single mic while we were performing the catalog of the Seldom Scene and Old & In The Way. Both banjo player Michael Arlen Bont and Hoffman started out as guitarists. bar, they were all new to their instruments. When the group’s three founding members first took the stage together in 2000 at a Kalamazoo, Mich. In an era of uncertainty, perhaps that’s to be expected.Īs it turns out, Greensky Bluegrass is particularly adept at making adjustments on the fly, since steady evolution has been a hallmark of the band’s career. However, by the time that the initial slate of 11 scheduled shows had concluded, two of those dates had been canceled due to snow. 20 to coincide with the release of Stress Dreams. The first leg of the Greensky Bluegrass tour kicked off in Albany, N.Y., on Jan.
This time, however, it wasn’t the global pandemic but rather the winter weather that took its toll.
#Beautiful people beautiful problems chprds free#
The pandemic has obviously changed the mood quite a bit and led us to make some decisions that we never imagined we’d have to think about 20 years ago-back when we just wanted to meet girls and get free beer.” That’s even been true of our crew where, over the years, we’ve added some more brothers to the van to make the party bigger. “Many of our fans have become friends and vice versa. Even the people we don’t know, I consider my friends,” declares mandolinist Paul Hoffman. The situation has been particularly vexing given the group’s relationship with its tight-knit community of supporters. Everything would be canceled, then we’d book shows and those would be canceled.” We’ve spent so many hours over the last year and a half on the phone, talking about people’s safety and trying to make the right decisions. But that person has not been available to help navigate a band through a pandemic. For most everything else, you can call an elder or someone who’s been through it before and get a little bit of advice. This is unlike anything we’ve faced in recent generations. This intrepid mindset was essential when Bruzza and his four bandmates embarked on a winter tour in support of their ambitious and emotionally engaging new studio album, Stress Dreams.ĬOVID-19 had already led the group to negotiate new terrain.Īs dobro player Anders Beck notes, “There has been no roadmap. We’re kindred spirits and we share a taste for adventure.”
“When we get together and play, it’s pretty distinctive.
“I don’t think we sound like anybody else, and I don’t think anybody else sounds like us,” observes Greensky Bluegrass guitarist Dave Bruzza.
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