Front-country bluegrass band of 15 years Head for the Hills heads to the Knotty Pine this weekend with their delicate, danceable take on bluegrass, including new songs, new musicians and new instruments they’ve added to their act since their last visit to the area.
“We definitely try to do what we want to do as a band,” said bassist Matt Loewen, who with guitarist Andy Kinghorn, violinist Joe Lessard and new drummer Riley Williams will unpack at the Knotty Pine on Saturday night. “We have such a wide palate, and we’re a band that’s always been moved to do what we do — Afro-grass, straight-up bluegrass or playing No. 1 hit singles.”
The band also has been moved to release new music differently.
“We’ve decided to release songs as we go,” Loewen said, speaking about the recent single “Say Your Mind,” which anyone familiar with the band will recognize as something a bit different from its more typical earnest folk style. “It’s got elements that we’ve never played with before, in part due to the corona time at home. I got more into synthesizers — maybe even went off the deep end, too — but got into the different modular headspace.”
Over the course of 15 years, dorm room jam sessions grew into coffee shop appearances that led to roadhouse and club dates all across the country. Festival appearances have included the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, South by Southwest, FloydFest, RockyGrass, DelFest, WinterWonderGrass, Blue Ox Music Festival, Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival, Folk Alliance and many more. The band made the CMJ Top 200 twice and has been awarded Best Bluegrass accolades in Colorado four times via Denver’s Westword Magazine.
But rather than resting on its laurels, the band is willing to explore and grow.
“Like a painter that starts in acrylic and graduates to oils, Head for the Hills is deeper and richer in their 15th year as a band, with a wider palette of sonic textures at their disposal,” the band’s website states.
Their new sound and attitude can be heard in “Say Your Mind,” made with long-term collaborator Aaron Youngberg, the owner-engineer of Swingfingers Studio in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“Aaron has made most of our records over the years,” Loewen said, “and he has made a name for himself, too, in the acoustic and bluegrass world. There’s always something cool happening up there.”
While the group has logged some time in the studio, it isn’t working toward an actual album. This one-song-at-a-time approach that could be seen as a metaphor for a greater rerouting for Head for the Hills, one that comes through in the music.
“You know, we’re toeing the line between what is optimum and what’s doable,” Loewen said. “It’s mostly astrology,” he added with a laugh, mentioning “a combo of strategy, ability and finance.”
“For our violin player and his partner, it meant getting the RV and doing the remote-all-over-the-place lifestyle,” he said. “And it’s been a lot of time in the Southwest and the desert, and that Southwest vibe is coming through when we play.”
Loewen said making music that has a more ambient vibe and that breaks out of the string to time measure mentality has served as inspiration for new music.
“Adam brought his guitar over, and I was playing with the synthesizers, and he ended up writing a song from that session — not about that session, but what it opened up,” Loewen said.
The addition of Riley Williams on drums is also something new for the band.
“Riley is high-energy, a 21-year-old we found right after he graduated from high school here in Fort Collins, and, yeah, we snatched him up.”
Loewen said the band is energized for their trip to Victor, and thankful to be back on the road playing shows.
“The last time we were there we drove across the pass in one of the scariest snowstorms, there was so much snow. … We have been playing shows, but nothing like a two-week tour, so the shows we are playing we are so excited to be there.”
If you’ve seen Head for the Hills and are thinking maybe you can afford to sit this one out, you might reconsider because the band doesn’t sound like it did a few years ago. And, hey, last time they were in the area, it dumped, so maybe Ullr has a thing for this creative, evolving quartet. 
