Fauxgrass ‘on the move’ with touring and work on new album a year after bassist’s devastating hand injury

With a reshuffled lineup that includes fiddler Jeffrey Niemeier, Grand Rapids’ prog-bluegrass band is crisscrossing the country, working in the studio and just released a new video.

 

When Fauxgrass bassist Tim McKay mangled his hand in a snowblower more than a year ago, the future for the progressive bluegrass band seemed uncertain at best.

But with a healed hand and a reshuffled lineup, Fauxgrass is poised for a big 2015, touring the country, finishing up its next studio album and preparing for a busy summer festival season that might include the band competition at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado.

“We’re on the move,” said mandolinist Jason Wheeler. “We are gearing up for a big spring and our summer is filling up fast.”

The high-energy band – Wheeler, guitarist Adam Balcer, upright bassist Tim McKay and the most recent addition, fiddler Jeffrey Niemeier – already has had a busy winter:
The group toured Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Michigan after starting to record its new album last fall at Kalamazoo’s La Luna Recording & Sound with engineer Ian Gorman.

All of that seems remarkable, considering the accident that derailed McKay and the band last winter.

McKay – a shoemaker who also operates Yore Unlimited, now based in Greenville – broke and partially severed three fingers when his right hand got caught inside a snowblower while trying to unclog the chute. Surgeries and skin grafts were necessary to repair his badly mangled fingers.

“My hand has recovered pretty well, considering,” said McKay, who lived in Benzonia when the accident occurred but has since moved to Greenville. “I ended up only taking about 14 weeks off for healing, although I did bust some stitches more than once while playing a show early on. Admittedly, I was taking it fairly easy at first, especially at the breakneck speed we typically play.”

He did have to make some changes in his playing style, now using three fingers to pluck strings instead of two, and “adjusting my slapping technique to account for the lack of flexibility in my fingers. I’d say it was really about six months before I felt like I was starting to nail it again, but I still stumble a bit now and then when my fingers don’t quite do what I’d like them to.”

‘BRILLIANT’ VIOLINIST NIEMEIER ADDS DYNAMIC, ‘HARMONIC POSSIBILITIES’

McKay says his shoemaking business — with a mobile production space built into the back of a truck — is going well, now focused on individual orders from customers “rather than the large orders for the Japanese wholesale market” that he used to fill.

The band also revised its lineup – and adjusted its sound – after the departure of banjo player Joey Schultz. Fauxgrass replaced him with Niemeier, who’s played violin for a variety of bands, including folk-rock’s The Northern Skies.

“He’s an incredible guy, a great tone player and he brings balance to the band,” said Wheeler. “Changing our lineup from the banjo to the fiddle has opened a lot of doors for the band’s songwriting, harmonic possibilities and things like that. We aim to deliver a big wall of sound and still maintain dynamic changes, even if the tempo is roaring. We feel like the shift has allowed us to continue developing our sound in a driving, but melodic direction.”

McKay calls Niemeier a “brilliant and conscientious guy” who “really tears up that fiddle. His
approach and attack on fiddle really complements us rhythmically and melodically.”

The band also sometimes performs as a quintet, with Dobro player Mark Lavengood from Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys joining Fauxgrass when he can. Lavengood also will appear on the new studio album, which the band has approached with a deliberate attitude.

“It’s taking us a long time, but we are comfortable with that,” said Wheeler. “We are really happy with the pieces we’ve composed together and with the development of the material. We’d love to have it ready this summer but the quality is most important to us.”

The band also recently worked with Grand Rapids videographer John Hanson on three music videos, including one for Fauxgrass’ version of the bluegrass classic, “Clinch Mountain Backstep.” Watch that video below. Fans can also listen to a new track, “Riot in the Ranger,” for free on the Fauxgrass website here.

Fauxgrass plays Odd Side Ales in Grand Haven at 9 p.m. Friday, March 13, in between trips to northern Michigan. Those performances – at Northern Natural Cider House in Traverse City (March 6) and Short’s Brewery in Bellaire (March 20) – are special for McKay, who grew up in Traverse City and played his first show there in 1994.

“Getting over to the Traverse City-Benzie area is like getting back home and playing for family and friends,” he said.

Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC