Songs From The Road Band

     Songs From The Road Band formed in 2004 when Charles Humphrey III pulled its members together to record songs he'd written while traveling the roads with the Steep Canyon Rangers.  The guys began their musical friendships in Chapel Hill, NC where Charles Humphrey, Andy Thorn, Jon Stickley, Mark Schimick and Bobby Britt often jammed together.  Their first album was simply "Songs From The Road."  The sophomore album Songs From The Road Band "As The Crow Flies" was released in 2009.  The band members are all fully engaged in their respective bands but have been playing and recording together, whenever schedules permit, for over 10 years.

Andy Thorn is the man on the High Five!  He resides in Colorado and is a full time member of LEFTOVER SALMON.

http://leftoversalmon.com/site/

Sam Wharton is a dynamic guitar player.  Originally  from Alabama he developed his picking chops in the music halls of Telluride, CO.   He currently makes his home in the mountains of Western North Carolina.  He sings lead and harmony vocals on all 3 Songs From The Road Band albums.

Mark Schimick is one half of the Josh Daniels & Mark Schimick Project.  He's sings and picks with heart and soul!

http://joshdanielmusic.com/the-josh-daniel-mark-schimick-project/

Bobby Britt is the tastiest, fieriest young fiddle player in bluegrass music.  He's currently a student at Berklee School of Music in Boston.  He is the full time fiddle player in the band TOWN MOUNTAIN.

http://www.townmountain.net/

Charles R Humphrey III's full time band is Steep Canyon Rangers.  He is a bass player and a songwriter.  He makes his home in Asheville, NC.  He is executive producer of "Traveling Show" and has written or co-written all songs in the SFTRB discography.  "CH3" is also an ultra runner and ran his first 100 mile race in 2014.

http://www.steepcanyon.com/


Andrew Marlin engineered, co produced, played, and sang on "Traveling Show."  His full time band is Mandolin Orange.  Andrew is an accomplished songwriter.  Mandolin Orange also features Emily Frantz who contributed harmony vocals on one track off of the latest album.


http://www.mandolinorange.com/

Jon Stickley is a modern day acoustic pioneer on the guitar.  He offers up a warm baritone on several songs on "Traveling Show."  He leads his own group The Jon Stickley Trio.

Charles Humphrey III plays bass with bluegrass music’s Grammy-winning Steep Canyon Rangers. The native Tar Heel is a prolific songwriter as well, and his compositions are often performed by a talented collection of friends on CDs he produces at those rare times when the musicians are not on tour.

“Traveling Show” is Songs from the Road Band’s third album on Humphrey’s Lucks Dumpy Toad Records. It features 14 tracks written by Humphrey and co-writers, including Jonathan Byrd, Shawn Camp and Calico Moon’s Mark Bumgarner. The songs are performed by 11 of Humphrey’s friends, and mixed and mastered at Chapel Hill’s Rubber Room Studio.

“Traveling Show” opens with the title track, a reflection on life on the road that will resonate with any hard-traveling musician. It’s performed by Mandolin Orange wunderkind Andrew Marlin, who co-produced the album; Marlin also sings lead on “Silk and Lace” and “Rake Out the Nails” (a duet with his M.O. partner, Emily Frantz).

Guitarist Sam Wharton sings joyously of “jumping the broom” in the tongue-in-cheek “Hillbilly Wedding Day.” Town Mountain’s Phil Barker imparts a wistful feel to the Grateful Dead-inspired “By the Banks” and pain and sorrow to the fatal tragedy of “Thompson Flood.” “Just Let Go,” sung by Leftover Salmon’s Andy Thorn, is presented as a newgrassy tour de force.

Additional contributions are provided by Town Mountain’s Robert Greer and fiddler Bobby Britt, along with other young and talented pickers and singers. Together, they make “Traveling Show” a showcase of young musicians carrying the bluegrass tradition forward to a bright, creative, compelling future.