Tickets: $15*
*Firehouse members receive a 10% discount

It wasn’t a given that these musicians would wind up in anything remotely resembling a bluegrass band. Singer Melody Walker got into world music and belted out roots-rock. Bassist Jeremy Darrow studied jazz. Leif Karlstrom trained as a classical violinist, and still prefers that title to “fiddle player.” Mandolinist Adam Roszkiewicz studied classical guitar at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

In the bluegrass world, musicians tend to define themselves by their relationships to tradition — specifically, the tradition of high-and-lonesome singing and a hard-driving sound. There are regional variations from Virginia to Colorado. The West Coast has its own freewheeling tradition, and that’s where Front Country started out: at a monthly jam in San Francisco. Then its members heard about a band contest at a bluegrass festival.

“And we ended up winning that band competition,” Walker says. “The very next day, I made a website for the band because I thought maybe people will be Googling Front Country at that point, possibly.”

From that point on, Front Country was a serious band.

Have a listen:

If you like…

• The Travelin’ McCourys
• Honeysuckle
• The Steel Wheels
• Della Mae

You’ll like Front Country.