Record label Head For The Hills | Genres Bluegrass, Hip-hop/rap | |
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Albums Robbers Roost, Live, Blue Ruin, Head for the Hills Similar Drew Emmitt, Bill Nershi, Leftover Salmon, Greensky Bluegrass, Yonder Mountain String Ba | ||
Head for the Hills is a four-piece string band from Fort Collins, Colorado consisting of Adam Kinghorn (guitar/vocals), Joe Lessard (violin/vocals), Matt Loewen (upright bass/vocals), and Sam Parks (mandolin/vocals). Lessard is also a founding member of alternative hip hop group, Whiskey Blanket. Formed in 2003, Head for the Hills' style of music is described as progressive bluegrass but explores a variety of modern genres, from Americana to jazz, indie rock, and hip-hop. All members contribute to songwriting and material arrangement, with the primary vocalists being Kinghorn and Lessard.
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History
Kinghorn, Lessard, Loewen, and founding member, Mike Chappell (mandolin) first formed the band during their freshman year of college at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Prior to this, Kinghorn and Chappell played music together as high school students in their hometown of Golden, Colorado. Upon meeting Lessard and Loewen, they decided to pursue their mutual interest of bluegrass music, honing their craft in the dormitories. 2003 and 2004 saw them playing various house parties and small local venues throughout the Front Range of Colorado. Their first official show was at Higher Grounds Cafe in Golden in February 2004. In 2005, the band went on their first out-of-state tour to the Midwest, a region in which bassist Loewen spent most of his youth. That same year the band played their inaugural season opening show at the famed Mishawaka Amphitheatre, a historical outdoor concert venue located on the Poudre River 25 miles northwest of Fort Collins, CO.
In 2007, Head for the Hills released their first studio album, Robber’s Roost, produced by Grammy award-winning dobro player and producer, Sally Van Meter. The summer of 2007, the band won the Northwest String Summit band competition at Horning’s Hideout, a popular acoustic music festival outside of Portland, Oregon. In the following years the band played numerous national music festivals, including Wakarusa Music Festival, DelFest, High Sierra Music Festival, SXSW, Summer Camp Music Festival, RockyGrass, Mulberry Mountain Harvest Music Festival, FloydFest and most notably Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2012.
The band has also performed on notable radio outlets: NPR’s Ideastream, eTown and more.
In 2010, the group released a self-titled album produced by Leftover Salmon’s Drew Emmitt at the home studio of Bill Nershi, member of The String Cheese Incident. The album was engineered by Gus Skinas, who is perhaps most well known for his work digitally remastered Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, among others. In addition, Vance Powell - who has a Grammy for his work on the Raconteurs wildly successful Consolers of the Lonely album—mixed the record.
In 2014, Head for the Hills released their third studio album entitled Blue Ruin. This album displayed a new direction for the band in that it was less focused on traditional bluegrass sounds and explored influences of hip-hop and gypsy jazz, to name a few.
In 2015, founding member Chappell left the band to pursue a life outside of music. Sam Parks began playing with the group during the summer of 2015 and after Chappell’s August departure, officially becoming a member in January 2016.
Band Members
Former Members
Songs
Never DoesBlue Ruin · 2013
One Foot in the GraveHead for the Hills · 2009
Goin' DownRobbers Roost · 2007