Biography

They say the only thing constant is change, and after some 15 years of music making with their original lineup, change finally came last year for western North Carolina’s Balsam Range. Now, with the release of Kinetic Tone, their 10th collection for Mountain Home Music Company, the group puts an exclamation point on their embrace of the new as they welcome mandolin virtuoso Alan Bibey to the award-winning quintet. Yet beyond the refreshment of energy it embodies, the new project reveals Balsam Range as more committed than ever to expressing a broad vision of life through compelling artistry. And with three songs having already topped the charts, there’s no doubt that Kinetic Tone counts as one of the most eagerly anticipated full-length releases of the year.

From the dramatic opening of the first song, “Echo Canyon” and its tale of a place “where truth and time stand still,” Kinetic Tone separates itself from the ranks of the ordinary. Instead, it’s a collection of stories, portraits and meditations that encompass adventure (“Marshall McClain”), lost love (“Snake Charmer”), aging and growth (“What The Years Do”), faith (“God Knows”), the urge to roam (“Two Lane Highway,” which features Bibey as a new lead voice), and changes to the ways of life that long held sway around their homes in Haywood County (“Running Out of Reasons”). And while there are is a full measure of songs that feature the smooth, flowing grooves and burnished harmonies for which Balsam Range are renowned, there is a new emphasis on, and a bit of a new edge to the hard drive of straight-ahead bluegrass in songs like hit single “We’ll All Drink Money” and an inspired reworking of the signature Waylon Jennings song, “Just To Satisfy You.” There’s even an exhortation–”all the worry in the world won't get you nowhere, so I wouldn't worry if I were you"--cast in the form of an old-time gospel-flavored quartet.

Kinetic Tone, then, serves to give long-time fans musical reassurance that, for Balsam Range, change has been good, and to grab the attention of a whole new circle of fans, too. Most of all, as the group prepares for its signature year-end “Art of Music” festival in Haywood County, Kinetic Tone is a bold statement that, for Balsam Range, the best is yet to come.