‘Old School Freight Train’ chugging into the ‘Burg this week
Charlottesville-based band brings talent to various venues
Posted on February 18, 2008
They have been called “The next big thing” by the Boston Tribune and their songs have been called “accessible but uncompromising in their creativity” by David Royko of the Chicago Tribune. They were recognized and invited to the studio of bluegrass legend David Grisman and have performed on the same ticket as well-known and established artists like Sam Bush, Josh Ritter, Allison Krauss, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, Medeski Martin and Wood and George Strait.
Though they have toured on and off for the past seven years, this Charlottesville-based five-piece still has a soft spot for the hometown crowds of Virginia and this Wednesday, they will be sharing the love with Harrisonburg and JMU.
“After forty years of recording acoustic music, it’s not very often that a new band catches (and keeps) my attention,” Grisman said. “Old School Freight Train has done that and more.”
College buddies, Pete Frostic (mandolin and mandocello), Jesse Harper (vocals, guitar, percussion) and Ben Krakauer (banjo) began playing together in Williamsburg and were later joined by Darrell Muller (upright bass) and Nate Leath (fiddle). The group took off after sending a demo to Grisman, who invited them to a show at the Birchmere where OSFT met him after the show and the men were met by Grisman’s immediate interest to help the band record and promote their material.
Since teaming up with one of the most accomplished bluegrass musicians in the business, who has performed with artists including Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead, OSFT recorded and released Run in ’05 on Grisman’s Acoustic Disc Label and self-released the album Live in Ashland. Later on this week on Feb. 22, the band will be filming a show at the Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville and news about their next release, due out in April, can be found online.
The group plays an eclectic style of music fusing jazz and bluegrass with Celtic and Latin hues and thoughtful lyrics. The vocals of Harper also lend themselves to an easy comparison with Ben Harper, smoothly coating intricate melodies and arrangements composed through the group effort of the band.
“We all write together,” Frostic said. “We’ll sometimes put chords in a hat and pull them out and then we each go away and take 15 minutes to come up with something. Then we reconvene and pick the best or combine them.”
OSFT’s influences range from Van Morrison and Brad Mehldau to artists covered on Run including Stevie Wonder and Randy Newman, though their unique combination of styles can most accurately be described as the probable future of bluegrass.
“We wanted to play everything,” Frostic said. “But it eventually coalesced because some things felt natural and other things we were terrible at. The training we’ve had has been with each other.”
Regardless of musical preference, the show is guaranteed to deliver a quality performance, as OSFT has proved to be an influential contemporary bluegrass group and emphasize the best part of performing is the energy of the crowd.
“I love taking a risk musically and hoping it works,” Frostic said. “When it does, it’s great, when it’s bad it’s awful. But that thrill of trying new things is probably my favorite.”
More information on the show can be found online at www.osft.net or on the Old School Freight Train MySpace page.
