Sugar Hill recording artists, The Infamous Stringdusters, will be making their first visit to the Walnut Valley Festival in 2009. Photo by Jim McGuire.

Winfield, Kansas — Three-time International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) award winning band and Sugar Hill recording artists, The Infamous Stringdusters, will be making their first visit to the stages of the Walnut Valley Festival in 2009. Though the band is rooted in the traditions of bluegrass, fans can always expect to hear a mix of country, bluegrass and free form improvisations that help make every show a one-of-a-kind experience. The Stringdusters performs with such virtuosity and energy that they are equally as comfortable performing in a sit down performing arts center as they are in a standing-room-only rock club; and they relish this diversity in their performances. With a solid repertoire of original songs compiled from their two Sugar Hill albums, plus new songs and a constantly changing set list the band continues to pick up new fans each stop they make.

The Infamous Stringdusters genesis can be traced back to 2002, when Andy Hall, Chris Pandolfi, and original guitarist Chris Eldridge met in Boston. They knew they had musical chemistry, but their lives were too out of synch to start a band until they all found themselves in Nashville in 2004. By then, Hall had been in the band of acclaimed bluegrass singer and songwriter Ronnie Bowman, where he met Jeremy Garrett and Jesse Cobb. Together, this newly-formed alliance of superpickers searched for the right bass player, who wound up being Travis Book, a product of the Colorado jamgrass scene. The departure of Eldridge in 2007 led to the addition of Andy Falco, whose blues-infused style perfectly complemented the band’s sound. Falco joined the Stringdusters in the late summer, and according to bassist/vocalist Travis Book, “It ended up giving the band a lift I don’t think anybody anticipated. It was almost like the sails finally filled up completely.”

That same year the band released their debut album, Fork in the Road, through Sugar Hill Records. The band’s sophomore release, the self-titled The Infamous Stringdusters, feels like an introduction of a sort. Whereas Fork in the Road was made during their first potent months together, this album displays the band’s evolution during two years of intense touring, meticulous woodshedding and brotherly jamming. It’s their first record with accomplished guitarist Andy Falco, whose blues-infused licks and stunning virtuosity has added a new facet to the band’s musical personality. It’s the first with the band’s dream producer Tim O’Brien, a Grammy-winning musician who has pioneered and embodied the progressive school of roots and bluegrass that underlies the Stringdusters sound. It also features nine band originals supplemented by a few carefully chosen tunes from colleagues in the acoustic music community.

The festival will be held at the Winfield fairgrounds with this year’s dates being September 16th through 20th. Advance tickets are on sale now and may be purchased at the festival office, 918 Main Street in Winfield, Kansas or by calling 620-221-3250. For more information you can call the office or access the festival website at www.wvfest.com.