I guess I’ll start by saying that The Creekers are not what purists, or even the band themselves, would consider a true “bluegrass” group. Yes, there is percussion involved; the picking gets sparse on certain tracks, and the tempo can lag behind the cruise control of a hundred miles an hour that the forefathers of the genre sat in. It’s a little more of a new-age take on the genre, and one that takes some liberties of its own, but it’s clear where the band’s north star is for inspiration.
There’s an argument that an artist like Billy Strings is closer to the style’s true form. Still, his own experimentation is maybe too widely placed in the jam sphere and other rock-adjacent subsects to really sit in bluegrass as the extent of his identity. The Creekers, on the other hand, use modern country conventions to make their reference points pop off the page.
It would be reductive to call the six-piece a down-the-middle picking group, but it would be more ignorant not to think they have a lot of sway in pointing people in its direction. The group has just released Follow The Sound, their debut LP and first under major Warner Records, where their home state of Kentucky sounds equal parts eerie and alluring depending on the key they’re in. The record is as much a love letter to home as it is a setting for what it might look like on a crisp autumn afternoon: wind whooshing, leaves rustling, and the whoops and hollers of some local folk in overalls heard from just over the tracks.
But the record, and ergo The Creekers’ entire catalog up to now, seems to be in love with its own inspiration to the point that it invites a deeper dive into the tastes of fully fledged bluegrass, as in their authentic banjo picking or high, warbling vocal performances. It’s a modern take on the genre that’s equal parts boundary-pushing while remaining extremely reverent.
As country music has pushed toward commercial dominance, bluegrass may be one of the most difficult subgroups within the moniker to bring into the 21st century. It’s archaic on arrival in many instances, but The Creekers seem to have a firm handle on what’s made it last this long in the first place. More than that, they’re confident in their interpretation of where to take it from here and let their own taste bleed into that tradition in some new and exciting ways. It may not be your “pawpaw’s bluegrass,” but it would probably still make his ears perk. The same can be said for a modern generation of listeners latching onto the sound, too.
