Open Road

Open Road came together in Fort Collins, Colorado, toward the end of the 1990s as a bluegrass ensemble devoted to the classic style first shaped by Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers, its members still only in their late twenties and early thirties. Lead singer and guitarist Bradford Lee Folk, then working on a cattle ranch, crossed paths with electrical engineer Caleb Roberts, who had grown up in Columbia, South Carolina. Although Roberts had already founded the alt-country group Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, whose sound blended punk drive with explosive gospel fervor, he had long intended to start a strictly traditional bluegrass band. Folk, raised on bluegrass in his native Missouri and gifted with an uncommon tenor, became an immediate collaborator. The pair enlisted bassist Ben O’Connor, fiddler Jean Ballhorn, and banjoist Mark Leslie—who was later succeeded by Jim Runnels—to complete the roster. Their name was taken from a refined style of Stetson hat once favored by impeccably dressed bluegrass players. Esteemed dobro player Sally Van Meter produced the self-titled debut, released in 2000, which mixed numerous vintage bluegrass covers with several original songs written by Folk. Rounder Records issued the second album, Cold Wind, in 2002; by then Robert Britt had assumed the fiddle chair from Ballhorn and Eric Thorin had taken over bass from O’Connor. The International Bluegrass Music Association nominated Open Road for Emerging Artist of the Year in both 2001 and 2002.