How to go
What: Run Boy Run in concert
Where: Clark State Performing Arts Center, Kuss Auditorium, 300 S. Fountain Ave., Springfield
When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10
Admission: $30 adult; seniors $24; students $15
More info: 937-328-3874 or www.clarkstate.edu/about-clark-state/performing-arts-center
It’s a fast pace keeping up with Run Boy Run.
The past five years have brought its five members, all University of Arizona graduates, which includes two pairs of siblings, two of whom are married, to the attention of Americana folk music and progressive bluegrass fans.
Run Boy Run sprints into the Clark State Performing Arts Center in support of its new CD, “Something to Someone,” at 7:30 p.m. next Friday, Oct. 10.
It’s the opening show of Clark State’s Club Kuss Series and is appropriate for all audiences.
“We draw from old-time traditions, but are more contemporary. It feels at home, but it speaks to today,” said Matt Rolland, the band’s fiddler as well as its manager.
Growing up in Arizona’s bluegrass community, Run Boy Run’s members knew each other years before. In 2009, they formed the band and didn’t want to go the traditional route.
Matt’s sister Grace Rolland and sisters Jennifer and Bekah Sandoval, along with Jesse Allen make up the band. Matt and Bekah married in 2013.
Rolland said in the end they are still a band, but that family aspect can sometimes make a stronger band.
The women all sing lead and the band goes for an all-acoustic sound. Rolland said if there is an influence, then it’s artists like Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.
Their style won several contests that opened doors to Run Boy Run’s first EP in 2011, followed by a full-length CD, “So Sang the Whippoorwill,” in 2013.
Key exposure came when the band played the radio program “A Prairie Home Companion” multiple times. Host Garrison Keillor praised the group’s harmonies in the liner notes for the CD.
The new CD, to be released Oct. 28, is yet another step up, Rolland said.
“I feel like our music is evolving, changing,” he said. “There’s a nice variety with harmony singing, strong instrumentals and a string-heavy sound.”
Rolland said some of the band’s best receptions have been in Ohio.
“The Midwest has been our biggest surprise. It’s an exciting time. People love progressive acoustic music there. I hope the people in Springfield will feel the same way.”
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