Infamous Stringdusters photo by Jim McGuire, courtesy of Sugar Hill Records.

Though it may sound like hyperbole, the simple truth is this: there's no other band quite like the Infamous Stringdusters. Emerging from a lively community of friends and colleagues that's taken root in Nashville, they're six musicians poised at the point where youthful energy is balanced with maturity, inspiration with discipline and creativity with experience—exactly the sweet spot where the greats of bluegrass have made their most lasting marks.

Schooled in tradition, yet able to stretch out in jam band style improvisation, endowed with razor-sharp vocals, fiery instrumental abilities and a rapidly growing repertoire of well-crafted original songs and tunes, the Infamous Stringdusters are as fresh an addition to the bluegrass—make that, the music—scene as has come along in many a year.

"They're young, bright, articulate, immensely talented, and they can sing in the old style or in their own style," says award-winning Blue Highway guitarist, singer and songwriter Tim Stafford, who produced Fork In The Road, the sextet's February 2007 debut for Sugar Hill.

Untangling the threads of the Infamous Stringdusters' origin is nearly impossible, thanks to the breadth of professional associations and friendships that brought its members together in various combinations. Still, a few highlights are worth noting, from the joint tenure that Andy Hall, Jeremy Garrett and Jesse Cobb shared in three time IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year Ronnie Bowman's band, The Committee, to the initial encounter between Andy, original guitarist Chris Eldridge and Chris Pandolfi in Boston, where Andy had graduated from the Berklee School of Music not long before Chris became the first student there admitted with the banjo as his principal instrument, to the lengthy search that resulted in Colorado jamgrass mainstay Travis Book's joining the band, to the recent recruitment of Andy Falco, an elite Nashville guitarist who has always been a friend of the band. Indeed, the six musicians' resumes cut a swath across the bluegrass mainstream—and beyond:

Andy Hall (dobro) toured and/or recorded with icons like Earl Scruggs, Dolly Parton and Charlie Daniels while recording his own solo album (Redwing) that featured soon-to-be members of the Infamous Stringdusters;

Andy Falco (guitar), the newest addition to the group, has recently toured with Alecia Nugent and The Greencards, while his wide-ranging abilities have been previously on display in working with such diverse artists as Vanessa Carlton and Levon Helm (The Band);

Infamous Stringdusters photo courtesy of Sugar Hill Records.

Chris Pandolfi (banjo) studied with Tony Trischka, earned a Bill Vernon Memorial Scholarship, recorded a solo album (The Handoff), and toured with the New England Bluegrass Band, the Grammy-nominated Russian country-bluegrass group Bering Strait, and former Leftover Salmon mandolinist Drew Emmitt;

Jeremy Garrett (fiddle) performed with an array of bluegrass artists, including Bobby Osborne, Chris Jones and Audie Blaylock, backed award-winning country singer Lee Ann Womack, and released an album (Garrett Grass—Bluegrass Gospel 2005) with his father, Glen Garrett, that featured dozens of top-shelf bluegrass pickers and singers;

Jesse Cobb (mandolin) served a stint with Grand Ole Opry member Mike Snider, performed with Jim Lauderdale, Melonie Cannon, the Fox Family, Valerie Smith and Lee Ann Womack;

Travis Book (upright bass) anchored Colorado's Broke Mountain, winners of the prestigious Rockygrass band competition in 2003, and performed with Benny "Burle" Galloway, arguably the best-known independent songwriter on the jamgrass scene.
Yet as deep as their individual experience runs, the Infamous Stringdusters are quick to assert that the band is more than the sum of its parts—and after a furiously busy year and a half on the road, they're attuned enough to one another that they complete each others' sentences. Their closeness of mind and prodigious talents make for tight, quick-moving live shows that sparkle with an infectious energy.

Not surprisingly, audiences have responded with fervent enthusiasm, creating a word-of-mouth buzz that's brought the Infamous Stringdusters a startling string of triumphant appearances at venues usually indifferent to acts who have yet to release their first recordings. And whether they're appearing in a hard-core bluegrass hall in the famed Pennsylvania-Maryland firehall circuit, a crowded showcase suite at the International Bluegrass Music Association's annual trade show, at a hip club like the Passim in Boston or the Rodeo Bar in New York, at a straight-up bluegrass festival like the Joe Val festival or Colorado's loose-limbed Rockygrass, the group's abundance of talent and passion have won them a multitude of new fans.

With the release of Fork In The Road, the acclaim is guaranteed to grow wider and deeper. While traces of the group's varied roots can be found in the title track and in a couple of selections like Boston folksinger Geoff Bartley's "Letter From Prison" (which Hall previously recorded on Red Wing), the heart of the album can be found in the predominant collection of originals penned by most of the group's members. On these, with arrangements shaped by the collective creativity of the band, the unique combination of strengths and the interplay of its members individual sensibilities are given full play, and the results are full of satisfyingly familiar reference points and deliciously surprising twists.

Stafford, a long-time observer whose vantage point gives him a particular clear view, makes no bones about where he thinks the Infamous Stringdusters are going. "I think they're the vanguard of what bluegrass music is going to become," he says with a grin—and while that may sound like hyperbole, too, immersion in Fork In The Road is all it takes to convince one that it's nothing more than the simple truth.