Kickin' Grass still explores sounds after a decade

When the Kickin' Grass bluegrass band began performing together, the musicians had no idea the band would be alive and kicking a decade down the road.

Yet, three albums, tens of thousands of miles, and several band members later, Kickin' Grass is set to celebrate its 10th anniversary Saturday at Durham's Carolina Theater.

"We didn't have a 10-year plan," says original member and principal songwriter Lynda Wittig Dawson with a laugh. "When we started, we knew we had stumbled upon a really great mix of people and strengths and songs.

"We didn't have a notion that we'd be doing this 10 years later. But we definitely had an enthusiasm for it that was genuine, and we knew that as long as we felt that way, we would keep doing it."

One of the Triangle's most popular bluegrass combos, Kickin' Grass started as the backing band for the Apple Chill Cloggers dance team. Playing music for the Cloggers' square dance routines provided an extensive repertoire and a solid sense of timing - two essentials of any successful bluegrass band.

With Wittig Dawson writing songs, the band progressed from support to creativity, and began playing local gigs and occasional festivals. Original members include Patrick Walsh (bass), along with Jamie Dawson (mandolin) and Wittig Dawson (guitar and vocals), who married in 2003. Through the years, other musicians came and went, but the band has maintained its current lineup with Hank Smith (banjo) and Pattie Hopkins (fiddle) for the past two years.

"It's been nice having another female who also sings," Wittig Dawson says. "We've been able to play around with some closer harmonies to my vocals.

"Hank is a ... melodic banjo player, so he helps us push the boundaries of the traditional sound. But using the traditional instruments and lineup, we're riding the fence between the two worlds. I'm really pleased with where we are in that space right now, because we're able to hold down a killer traditional song or fiddle tune ... but we're also writing some (music) that's progressive, too. It's been really fun."

Getting along

Fun has been the key to Kickin' Grass longevity. Spending 50 to 60 days on the road each year, preparing for and playing 40 or more gigs, requires a commitment that would burden a band that did not enjoy one another's company. Wittig Dawson says that has never been an issue for Kickin' Grass.

"I know I can speak for the other band members when I say that we really are some of each other's best friends. I think that's the only way we've been able to keep doing this. You spend so much time and energy, and put so much of yourself into a band. Knowing you're sharing that with other people who are equally invested and want to be there as much as you do, that's really the only way to keep it going."

Kickin' Grass counts several milestones that have contributed to a desire to keep on picking. One of the earliest was a 2003 tour with the Cloggers to Belgium. Others are three albums that have provided the songs, many written by Wittig Dawson, that have earned them fans worldwide.

"I think the albums ... we put out on our own gave us the impetus to keep going because we knew the music was out there in the world. And it was working for us even when we weren't playing."

Music of life's passages

With a new CD scheduled for release in 2012, the desire to perform should continue to burn well into the future. Recorded at Chapel Hill's Rubber Room studio, the album will present a personal exploration of life's passages, centered on the 2009 death of Walsh's wife from ovarian cancer, and Wittig Dawson's pregnancy with a daughter, who was born the following year.

"There was a lot of life and death and rebirth happening in our world at the time," she says. "So the songwriting and the songs we chose to record revolve around a theme in a way that they haven't before. I think because of that we feel a real strong connection to these songs."

Looking back at their first decade, Wittig Dawson thinks the Kickin' Grass that will celebrate in Durham is significantly different from the one that backed the Apple Chill Cloggers 10 years ago. Most important, she says, is the fact that the band has found its niche by moving tradition forward as a bluegrass-based band for the future.

"I think we've become more comfortable exploring how music sounds when we are who we are, rather than trying to sound like what we think people want to hear.

"We're not a traditional bluegrass band and never were. I think in the beginning we thought we were, or at least we were trying to be that. I think the band has evolved in becoming more comfortable as individual musicians coming together and making a sound that is uniquely ours. We love that sound now, but at the beginning I think we fought against. Now, we've embraced it."