Finnders & Youngberg
Fort Collins, Colorado, United States
Music
Press
While some bands are mainly about flashy instrumental work, the Colorado quintet Finnders and Youngberg seem to be principally about the songs. Most on FY5 are by guitarist Mike Finnders, who takes the lion’s share of the lead vocals. He’s a storyteller at heart, converting his experiences and those of people he knows into a wide array of good tales in interesting settings.
“Red Mountain Pass” tells a harrowing story of a treacherous drive on a snowy summit, while “Driftwood” and “Fiddlin’ To My Grave” are both from the musician-as-rambler school. Two of the most striking songs are “Sold On You,” a lovely proclamation of love cast as a slow country weeper, and “Nebraska,” sung by bassist Erin Youngberg, a stark account of an abandoned pioneer woman and her ailing infant. Banjoist Aaron Youngberg joins her on a sweetly swinging recasting of an old Kay Starr/Tennessee Ernie Ford duet, “I’ll Never Be Free.”
The band seems equally comfortable playing swing and classic country as they are bluegrass, and while they transform Hank Thompson’s “Tomorrow Night” with a bluegrass rhythm, the harmonies still have a swing-influenced quality to them. The Youngbergs bring pedal steel guitar and snare drum to the arrangements when they stray from the bluegrass tent. That’s all part of a nice overall sense of harmonies, instrumental breaks, and arrangements all supporting the songs rather than being thrown in for the sake of showing off.
FY5 is an interesting and original collection of mostly new songs that use bluegrass as a point of departure. Fiddler Ryan Drickey and mandolinist Rich Zimmerman contribute tasty breaks in all the styles that the band explores. Good writing and good playing make this a band worth keeping an ear on. (www.finndersandyoungberg.com.)HK
- Bluegrass Unlimited (Jan, 2012 issue)
Discography
Finders & Youngberg: Keep Your Suitcase Packed - 2008
Finnders & Youngberg: FY5 - 2010 (CD and vinyl)
Played on bluegrass and Americana stations across the country.
Photos
Bio
Finnders and Youngberg is not a law firm. Oh, they might know some things about speeding tickets and noise ordinance violations, but they are a band. One could call them a bluegrass band, which they are, in spades. They’ve played just about every bluegrass festival, concert hall and listening room from Virginia to California in the last decade.
But this band is different. They’re playing original music, and dress it up just as the song seems to dictate. This leaves them free to explore their collective love for Old-Time, Honky-Tonk, Folk and Blues sounds as well as bluegrass, all the while producing music that has not been previously made.
It’s all about the chemistry. It began when Mike Finnders met Erin and Aaron Youngberg in Chicago, IL in 2004 and shared inappropriate jokes backstage as their respective bands shared the bill. Finnders and Youngberg played intermittently until its 2008 release, Keep Your Suitcase Packed, which became the #5 CD that year on Colorado independent radio and sparked a busy year of performances along the Rocky Mountains. Their 2010 release, FY5 was the #1 played album on Independent Colorado radio for 2011, and the #1 Bluegrass album in Colorado for 2011.
Both recordings displayed award-winning original material (Mike is a two-time Chris Austin Songwriting Contest Winner at Merlefest), combined with superb musicianship and vocals (Aaron and Erin anchored Hit & Run Bluegrass on banjo and bass, winners of Rockygrass and Telluride band contests, and SPBGMA international band contest champions). Also evident was the band’s adventurous approach to the sacred traditions and arrangements of bluegrass and country music.
In 2009 the band added mandolinist Rich Zimmerman and fiddler Ryan Drickey. Rich had previously fronted and toured with the regional bluegrass favorite, Slipstream for most of the last decade. Ryan, a Rockygrass fiddle champion, has lent his considerable skills to tours and recording projects with the likes of Matt Flinner, Jake Schepps, Taarka, and Michelle Shocked, as well as pursuing his own interests in the exotic fiddle styles of Sweden and Sudan. When added to Mike, Aaron and Erin’s powerful rhythmic foundations, Rich and Ryan launch the music into new altitudes.
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