It takes more than matching red Western shirts and cowboy hats to make a band. Red Mountain Boys showed the audience at the Station Inn on Friday that they have more—much more. The Colorado-based bluegrass band played to a packed house, with light, friendly banter between their all-original songs.
Their camaraderie onstage is evident as they pass the lead vocals back and forth, circling the stage and sharing the spotlight. They opened singing “Look Out Now (Here They Come)” announcing that “the Red Mountain Boys are back.” This was not their first time to play the historic Nashville stage, but after asking how many in the audience were there for the first time—quite a few—they promised, “We’ll do our best to make it memorable.” And they did.
They sang “Seven Mile Run,” written by bassist Jon Murphy, who followed with “Arizona Sky,” one of their many songs that proved sing-along-able. Guitarist Alan Begley reportedly hailing from L.A.—Lower Alabama—took the lead, singing about a “down home girl” who would “flick you away like a bluetail fly.” They also sang a song written in homage to Murphy’s base called “Good Ol’ Kay.”
The band’s dynamics shone on such songs as “Don’t Want to Hear Another Country Song,” with crowd-around-the-mic harmony and timing. Their harmonies were also highlighted on “Wish I’d Stopped to Look Around,” written by banjo player Lewis Monk with a bit of yodeling. Even their transition to “He’ll Lead You There, one of several gospel songs I the set, was up-tempo, with the crowd clapping along without a cue.
Announcing they were heading out early the next morning to the Bean Blossom Festival in Bill Monroe country, they asked if there might be any helicopter pilots in the crowd, offering band t-shirts and stickers from the merch table as inducement.
The clever lyrics and the energetic delivery of the band’s set list kept the audience right with the Red Mountain Boys through the evening. In the set after the break, they delivered more straight-on bluegrass with their Colorado flavor. When they sang “That Red, Red Mountain,” they said they had come by their band name honestly but had since discovered that almost every state where they sang had its own Red Mountain.
Jeff Daugherty, burning up the mandolin and taking his share of lead vocals, sang “In the Hills of Carolina,” inspired by his own courtship, as well as an instrumental “Old Black Fiddle” he co-wrote with his “mandolin mentor,” the late Bobby Osborne.
The infectious spirit of the evening rubbed off on everyone in the venue, as the members of the Red Mountain Boys moved off stage during the break, greeting the audience and expressing genuine gratitude for their presence. Throughout the night, the members of the band seamlessly moved around the stage as they shared the microphone and the spotlight, showcasing their impeccable instrumental skills, their obvious mutual respect and friendship, and their joy in making music. The result was a memorable evening of music indeed.
