NewFound Road

One of the most exciting new bands to emerge on the national bluegrass scene in the new millenium, NewFound Road specializes in a powerfully streamlined sound delivered with heartfelt honesty and passion. The bands' three equally capable, yet distinct vocalists, who are also formidable instrumentalists and songwriters, ensure that each song is executed with both emotion and precision- be it a bluesy solo vocal, soaring three part harmony or a solemn a cappella gospel treatment. Instrumentally, NFR is a role model for the modern self-contained bluegrass ensemble, providing both sympathetic accompaniment and thrilling, hard-driving solos. NewFound Road is contemporary bluegrass at its most soulful and sincere.

NewFound Road was born as a bluegrass and acoustic gospel band in southwest Ohio eight years ago, when Tim Shelton first played with fellow Buckeye State bluegrasser Rob Baker and Kentucky pickers Jr. Williams and Tim Caudill (the band's original bassist). "We got together in Jr.'s living room on the fourth of July of 2001 to play and meet," explains Shelton. "We all wanted to play music the way that we heard it in our heads, and it just clicked from the very beginning." Caudill has since left the band, and was replaced by former Rhonda Vincent and the Rage bassist Randy Barnes. Barnes' solid pulse and rich tone is the foundation of NewFound Road's sound.

The music of NewFound Road is marked by a refreshing clarity - a sense of honesty and purpose rarely heard in today's bluegrass. For with the increased popular interest in bluegrass music has come an increased willingness to sweeten and tamper: maybe a touch of percussion here, a pedal steel there, a little piano on the chorus. Yet with their visceral, road-honed attack and disarming purity of vision, NewFound Road are a vivid reminder of the power inherent in undiluted, stripped-down bluegrass. This unflinching immediacy is bolstered by a wide range of stylistic influences, the presence of three remarkably soulful vocalists, and strong in-house songwriting talent, making NewFound Road among the most dynamic and thrilling contemporary bluegrass bands on today's thriving scene.

NewFound Road:
Same Old Place
Released 04/28/2009

When it comes from NewFound Road, it comes from the soul. There are more famous bluegrass bands, but you’d be hard pressed to find one that plays and sings with more feeling and heart than this extraordinary ensemble from little Franklin, Ohio. NewFound Road’s second collection for Rounder Records, Same Old Place, tells you all you need to know about this group’s depth of emotion.

The muscular, assertive banjo of member Junior Williams drives such pulse-quickening performances as “Love Stay Away from Me.” Slippery, silvery mandolin notes from Joe Booher are woven throughout the album’s finest tracks. The bass of Randy Barnes is the heartbeat of the rollicking “My Shoes Sure Know How to Get Around” as well as the other tunes.

Guests Justin Moses, Brandon Godman and Jim VanCleve provide the perfect sonic compliments to NewFound Road’s instrumental prowess. And everyone gets a turn to shine in the lightning-flashing instrumental “Piledriver.”

Perhaps most obviously, there is not a more soulful bluegrass lead singer than NewFound Road’s Tim Shelton. He is effortlessly affecting on the heartbreaking ballad “Same Old Place.” Like all great country singers, he communicates straight from his emotional core on tunes like the haunting, minor-key gem “River of Pain.” Tim lets fly with bent notes, curlicue phrasing and melody-toying vocal acrobatics in “On the Back Row,” a honky-tonk song stripped to its acoustic roots.

His soul-piercing improvisations bring the classic “Lonesome River” back to life. And Tim is nowhere more breathtaking than in the gentle, gorgeous “Full Circle.”

That “soul” in NewFound Road might have its roots in the band’s gospel origins. Indeed, it was with a great deal of introspection and consideration that the group decided to make the transition from strictly religious lyrics to mainstream bluegrass five years ago. As one listen to the a cappella quartet singing in “Give Me Jesus” or the inspirational tone of “Try to Be” reveals, NewFound Road still swells with power on spiritual numbers. “I Am the Man (Thomas)” was actually previously recorded by the group on its 2005 gospel CD. The new version on Same Old Place is truly the collection’s “Hallelujah” moment.

Others have written of this band’s “refreshing clarity,” its “sense of honesty,” its “purity of vision” and its “fire and intensity.” Yes, NewFound Road has all of that.

But listen closely. There is something much more in this gifted group’s sound. There aren’t many bands who can shake you to your emotional core the way this one can. There are even fewer who can do it as consistently as NewFound Road does on Same Old Place. Call it spirit. Call it feeling. Or call it what it is…soul.

More than anything else, it is that elusive and special quality that has put NewFound Road on a fast track to bluegrass stardom. Listen and believe.

Robert K. Oermann
Nashville, TN

Randy Barnes - Bass
Joe Booher - Mandolin, vocals
Tim Shelton - Guitar, lead vocals
Junior Williams - Banjo, Guitar, vocals
**Occasional special guest appearances by Jim VanCleve (Fiddle, vocals) and/or Justin Moses (Guitar)

Same Old Place Enters Billboard at # 8!!
Thursday, 07 May 2009 15:30

Same Old Place, the latest recording from NewFound Road, makes it's debut on Billboard's Bluegrass Sales Chart at #8!