Arden, North Carolina (September 17, 2021) — Bluegrass powerhouse Sideline’s newest full length album, Ups, Downs and No Name Towns, finds the celebrated sextet — recipients of 2019’s International Bluegrass Music Association Song Of the Year award for their hit song, “Thunder Dan” and a group known for their distinctively stylish and explosive bluegrass that has netted them chart-topping singles and well-received albums — reaching new heights with a set that includes the kind of hard-hitting arrangements of classics that brought them acclaim in the first place, yet focuses on new material, chosen and delivered by a band with a perfect sense of who they are and what they have to say. The album is now available from Mountain Home Music Company.
The album’s title, drawn from “Old Guitar Case,” not only describes the band’s journey, but also acknowledges the recent struggle of the music industry — and especially its professional touring musicians — to cope with a months-long, pandemic-driven shutdown. Through the song’s depiction of the details of a road musician’s life, it reveals profound truths about journeys of hardship and triumphs, victories and defeats — all undertaken with the aim of reaching new heights as the music and the community it builds continue to grow.
“In the musical slump caused by the shutdowns of 2020, Sideline decided to pull together and start on a new project. We had time, we had each other, and we decided to put it all to work in a way we had never done before,” says Cherryholmes. “The inspiration and variety that make up this project really relate directly to the ‘Ups and Downs’ we were dealing with in real time. Working together to find ways to survive and remain relevant, while receiving dozens of calls day after day for canceled work — this became a whole new full-time, emotionally exhausting job. I truly feel that all of these experiences played the biggest part in the development of the music for this project. It affected every bit of attention and care to capture each performance exactly how we felt it, all the way down to the cover concept. In so many ways this tattered old guitar case represents the beating our band and career took through the pandemic. The fact that it still stands symbolizes our resilience and ability to persevere. Ups, Downs, and No Name Towns is by far the most musically developed project we’ve recorded to date, but it is also the most connected and inspired effort we’ve ever experienced, personally or musically.”
Among the highlights are the project’s first single, “Fast As I Can Crawl,” a hard core bluegrass release from 2020 that showcases Sideline’s trademark combination of power and finesse in a story of a man consumed by an urgent regret for his rejection of true love, and its early 2021 follow-up, “Just A Guy In A Bar,” which offers a more melancholy take on the same situation as its narrator offers a forlorn self-portrait co-written by bluegrass and country hitmaker, Ronnie Bowman.
Other key tracks include: “Miss Charlotte’s Game,” an entry in the genre’s still-vital catalog of “murder ballads”; “When The Son Rose Up That Morning,” an old-sounding new gospel single from earlier this year that delivers the timeless message of the Resurrection with characteristically bold harmonies; “I’ll Always Be A Gypsy,” a hard-driving modern bluegrass take on the traveling life that serves as a new radio single; and “Old Guitar Case,” the song from which the album title comes, which, through a focus on its traveling musician narrator’s relationship with an instrumental companion as well-worn as he is, serves as the purest expression of the project’s theme.
Listening to Sideline will remind fans of why so many people fall in love with Bluegrass in the first place; pulse-pounding drive, songs sung from the heart, flawless timing and dynamics, as well as the visceral emotion embedded in a classic performance. A band that was started as an off-season fun experiment has become a full-time dream team of players and singers.
Listen to Ups, Downs and No Name Towns HERE.
About Sideline
Sideline is a pedigreed six-piece powerhouse whose style has set the pace in Bluegrass for over two decades. Founders Steve Dilling, Skip Cherryholmes and Jason Moore can all claim their own historical significance to the genre as members of highly awarded groups, multiple Grand Ole Opry appearances and years of national and international touring. What started as a side project for the seasoned players soon moved to the front and center and they began to record and release albums in earnest. In 2019 Sideline won the IBMA Song Of The Year Award for their hit single, “Thunder Dan.”
To listen to Sideline reminds the fan of why so many people fall in love with Bluegrass in the first place; pulse-pounding drive, songs sung from the heart, perfected timing and dynamics as well as a visceral emotion in the rendering. A band that was started as an off-season fun experiment has become a full-time dream team of players and singers.
The band, recorded or live, move dynamically from well chosen, hard-hitting neo-traditional covers of classic songs to new material curated by a band with a perfect sense of who they are and what they have to say. Combine all this with their on-stage energy and finesse as well as their powerful and affecting harmonies, and you have the embodiment of the North Carolina Bluegrass sound. Sideline has released 4 national projects and records for the highly awarded Mountain Home Music Company based near Asheville, NC.