A bluegrass band that's tweaking traditional sound
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| Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys |
By Scott McLennan
Special to The Journal
Don’t let the pluck and strum of mandolin, Dobro, upright bass, acoustic guitar and banjo mislead you into thinking Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys is a bluegrass band. Or at least a traditional bluegrass band.
On its most recent album “Release Your Shrouds,” Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys take their old-timey instrumentation into some pretty interesting places, from the ragtime pop of “Tied Down to You” to the pastoral folk of “Leaves and Pods” to the contemporary commentary of “The Power.” When it comes to its bluegrass roots, the band plays it straight on “My Side of the Mountain,” and then slaps a Spanish accent on the high lonesome sound with “Querida Tierra.”
“We are all just lovers of music,” says Lindsay “Lou” Rilko. “Music has taught all of us in the band about life. Music is a system of knowledge.”
And this young band believes class is in session, constantly tweaking its sound without losing sight of its traditional roots. Just as “Release Your Shrouds” was subtly more progressive than its predecessor, the band is already breaking new ground, Rilko says, especially as it begins adding fiddle to the mix.
But for the time being the configuration of Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys — Rilko on vocals and guitar, her husband, Joshua Rilko, on mandolin, Mark Lavengood on Dobro resophonic guitar, Spencer Cain on bass and Keith Billik on banjo — is on the road and heading to Cady’s Tavern in Chepachet on Wednesday.
Singer Lindsay Lou (“Lou” being a nickname bestowed by friends, not a middle name or surname) and the bluegrass band the Flatbellys found each other about three years ago at an open-mic in Lansing, Mich. As the group developed, it tapped into a thriving roots-music scene supported by the Earthwork Music collective that promotes Michigan’s homemade music that is not related to Kid Rock, Bob Seger, or the MC5.
“When I found out such a thing existed, it changed the world for me. The things I wanted were suddenly possible,” says Rilko of her intent to be both traditional and original. The communal jamming and swapping of musical ideas helped Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys forge its own identity, one that filters a modern world view through jazz, bluegrass and folk.
Rilko says she believes natural selection is at work in music as firmly as it is in the natural world. She’ll hum a Stephen Foster melody and convince you it is as strong today as it was in the 1800s, which is why she and the Flatbellys are happy to wrap their sound around such a source: it’s proven to work.
“The music that lasts is good at what it does. It’s good at communicating,” she says.
Rather than simply covering the old songs, Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys capture the moments of the band members’ lives and times in these trusted frameworks; Rilko points out that a lot of what she writes about has to do with falling in love with her husband (“Writing about love is a great way to connect with people.”). That has helped net an audience, she says, that has as many twentysomethings as longtime acoustic-music followers.
“One night we’ll be playing a fairly traditional bluegrass night in San Francisco, and then we’ll be at the Head for the Hills festival at the Bluebird [Theater] in Denver playing to all people our age,” Rilko says. “Sometimes we’re in listening rooms playing to older audiences, sometimes we’re playing house parties. That’s the cool thing about acoustic music.”
Scott McLennan can be reached at smclennan1010@gmail.com . Follow him on Twitter @ScottMcLennan1.
To see how the story appeared in the Journal, click here.
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