Home

Steamboat Springs — If music fans can expect one thing from Oakhurst's show tonight at Mahogany Ridge, bass player Johnny James Qualley has a guess at what it might be:

"Sweat," Qualley said. "They can expect sweat because they're going to be dancing so much. It's one of those things where we kind of wind it up all the way to where we're going, and then we start playing and people can't control themselves."

Along the same lines, Oakhurst mandolin player Adam Smith said the show "is gonna be a hoot."

"We're going to go in there and pretty much play our hearts out, regardless. We pretty much leave it all at the door. It's just going to be ridiculous," Smith said, attempting to heed Qualley's background request that he not "say anything dumb."

On the phone from their home base in Denver, Smith and Qualley talked with 4 Points about performing 200 nights a year, being open to new influences and playing bluegrass-influenced music on traditional instruments with "a rock 'n' roll swagger and a rock 'n' roll attitude."

4 POINTS: What sets your band apart?

JOHNNY JAMES QUALLEY: Unlike most bluegrass bands, we have a big, driving rhythm section, and then you've got these guys just picking at 1,000 miles a minute.

It's kind of like rock 'n' roll on bluegrass instruments. We have the typical kind of classic bluegrass lineup, except we swapped out our fiddle player for a drummer. It works really good; it's got a nice, broad appeal wherever we go.

4 POINTS: Do you get any opposition to that from more traditional bluegrass fans?

JJQ: People in that world generally don't gravitate toward us. : If we were to go into a string band competition, we probably would not fare well, you know? But we have this kind of cohesiveness and go-for-it vibe.

We just don't get invitations to more traditional types of events. If we were able to achieve independent success, then we might start to get invitations. For example, Ryan Adams was at Telluride (Bluegrass Festival) last year, and he's not a traditional bluegrass musician. :

So the more traditional festivals tend to pass on us, but, at the same time, we get into a lot of festivals and venues that the traditional bluegrass band might not.

4 POINTS: How did you guys end up playing this kind of music?

JJQ: Once we had that instrumentation (acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass and drums), we started really doing our homework and digging into the style, and over time, we kind of ended up what we are today.

4 POINTS: How has that sound evolved in the years you've been playing together?

JJQ: Everyone has different tastes in the band, and they show themselves in different ways. It just keeps happening. On our next two records, we're going to be doing some pretty big divergences from what we've done. The more bands we hear, those kind of get integrated into what we're doing.

One guy will get turned on to a band. For example, a band we just saw in Steamboat, The Avett Brothers - if someone brings that in and we're driving around together and someone hears it, the whole band has been influenced by it. So we'll pick a cover by a band that no one's ever heard of, and then the whole band will hear it, and we'll all have our own collection.