Open Road 
Jefferson Hamer * Caleb Roberts - mandolin * Eric Thorin -
bass * Keith Reed - banjo
It's been a great ride for Open Road's Caleb Roberts, Keith Reed, and
Eric Thorin. With two successful CDs on Rounder Records, and three years
of touring across the U.S. and Canada with a band revered as one of
the great young hopes of bluegrass, they have enjoyed sharing their
music with traditional audiences, festival crowds, and young fans.
When lead singer Bradford Folk retired from bluegrass touring in April,
2006,
to open a honky-tonk venue, Caleb, Keith and Eric weren't ready to hang
up
their Stetsons. They still longed for following that Open Road as it
leads
to city concert halls, remote mountain festivals and colorful college
towns
to play and sing their spirited and honest bluegrass for those hungry
to
hear it.
And wouldn't you know, they found a compatriot in Open Road's home
base of Lyons CO. Jefferson Hamer, a versatile singer and songwriter
who has played with celtic band The Wayfarers, acoustic trio The Single
Malt Band, and Vince Herman's Great American Taxi, is a Lyons neighbor
of Caleb and Eric. Jefferson has performed at festivals including the
Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the High Sierra Music Festival, and Rockygrass
Festival, and in 2005, he released a well received solo Americana project,
Left Wing Sweetheart.
Open Road's 2004 Rounder release In the Life appeared on the Billboard
bluegrass charts, spent seven months on the National Bluegrass Survey
charts, and garnered widespread radio airplay and critical acclaim from
the
media (Country Weekly featured the band in a wrap-up of young acts taking
bluegrass into a "hip, happening future").
The band celebrated the 2005 Rounder release Lucky Drive with an inaugural
performance at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, drawing praise
from national press, including the New York Post, which wrote, "The
instrumental interplay is terrific, pure and simple," and Music
Row, which
lauded "you'll be hooked on their picking at first listen."
Lucky Drive
spent seven months on the National Bluegrass Survey song chart.
Caleb, Keith, and Eric attracted new Open Road fans at festivals including
Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival, the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival,
the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the Kluane Mountain Festival in Yukon
Territory, California's Strawberry Bluegrass Festival, and Atlanta's
Blue Ridge HarvestFest; and they are recognized favorites at hometown
festival Rockygrass in Lyons. They have performed with such talented
and varied musicians as Old Crow Medicine Show, Ralph Stanley, Yonder
Mountain String Band, and Donna The Buffalo.
The band also enjoyed a month-long stint in Nashville performing with
a number of local and national talents, including members of Blue Highway,
the Del McCoury Band, and Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. Open Road
was honored to have one of the band's living heroes, Vern Williams,
sing harmony on "I'm Lonesome," a track on Lucky Drive that
the band learned from a Larry and Happy Smith recording on the Blueridge
label.
Audiences will want to follow this new turn in Open Road for a refreshing
group of versatile musicians who share a passion for using traditional
bluegrass as a language for innovation.
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