Most of the time they’re scattered from Alberta’s mountains to its foothills, but when the members of Hundred Miles Across get together, their music resonates with a harmony that speaks to their closeness.
That harmony was on display at the Jasper Folk Music Festival’s Battle Royale May 24, when the five-piece string band nabbed a slot in the festival’s September lineup, after winning the band competition.
The group consists of Jasperites Monika Schaefer and Brian Lackey, Hinton’s Lois and Brian Carnell and Brian Fitch of the Shining Bank Hills. Listening to the steady roll of their tunes, you can almost feel that vast terrain passing underfoot.
It’s a pure bluegrass sound, and the tight harmonies and dueling instrumentals are the result of years spent jamming together. Most of the members have been playing together for ages, but the latest incarnation of the group is fairly new.
For a long time most of them played under the moniker the Fiddle River Band. But a year or so ago, when Brian Fitch hopped into the lineup to replace the recently departed Ron Brown, they decided to start fresh, with a new name and a reinvigorated sound.
With Fitch and his Dobro replacing Brown and his banjo, the group forged ahead with a new sound, renaming themselves with a nod to the 100 miles that separates the members.
The Battle Royale win was a “thrill” for the group, and Schaefer said the band “was tickled” by the victory. Tickled on one hand because it meant the audience dug their music, and on another because it meant another chance to get on stage and perform.
“There’s just something about performing that’s so exciting,” Schaefer said. The classically trained violinist took her first big dive into bluegrass about 15 years ago, when she attended a bluegrass camp in British Columbia, and she’s been in love with it ever since.
“It’s very high energy music,” and sharing the energy and happiness she gets from the music feels great, she said.
“If you are performing and it seems like you’ve brought pleasure to someone, and joy, that feels great. We enjoy it, so if we can share that with others it’s just such a thrill.”
“That’s one of the keys for me too,” said Fitch in a separate interview. “If I’m enjoying what I’m doing, it will go over with the crowd a whole lot better.”
Fitch also came to bluegrass in a roundabout way. He first learned to play the Dobro when he was eight, but by 14 he vowed to never touch one again.
“It was a corny instrument, I wasn’t impressing girls and my friends didn’t think it was very cool,” he said.
Years later he was given one as a gift, and as soon as he put his fingers to the strings it all came back to him. Now it’s the only instrument he plays.
Each member of Hundred Miles Across brings these kind of unique experiences to the band. And when all those experiences come together, Schaefer said, it creates a special connection that breeds great music.
As Lackey wrote in a description of the band “[our] home range is a Hundred Miles Across, but [our] music comes from a place less distant: close to the heart.”
Trevor Nichols
[email protected]
Check back next week to learn a little bit about troubadour Doug MacNearney, who won the solo competition at last month’s Battle Royale.
