Biography

A modern progressive string band that draws from the past but tempers tradition with elements of jazz, jam bands, and alternative rock, Old Salt Union fuse an organic sound with an adventurous musical imagination. The group's acoustic instrumentation and respect for bluegrass tradition is front and center, but they also show a willingness to tackle unusual themes and experiment with rock-oriented production techniques. The band were at their most straightforward on their 2014 independent release Bridge, but their 2017 self-titled album (their first for Compass Records) found them exploring a more sophisticated sound without abandoning their acoustic foundation. The Belleville, Illinois-based act first gained attention in the mid-2010s with a series of self-released records and festival performances, while appearances at Stagecoach and LouFest spread by word of mouth. Banjoist Ryan Murphey formed Old Salt Union with guitarist Dustin Eiskant in 2012. Mandolinist Justin Wallace and fiddler John Brighton followed not much later, with bassist Jesse Farrar -- Eiskant's cousin and a nephew of Son Volt's Jay Farrar -- arriving in 2014, after the group released the EP Western Skies. Old Salt Union issued the full-length Bridge and EP Woodshed in 2014, releases that helped push them onto the national bluegrass scene, and they won the FreshGrass competition in 2015. The band played numerous shows as an opening act and as part of festival lineups, racking up over 200 performances in a calendar year and setting the stage for the 2016 release of the Cut and Run EP. Eiskant left the band after that record; his replacement was Rob Kindle. Early in 2017, Old Salt Union signed a record contract with Compass Records. They released their eponymous debut for the label in August. After two years of steady road work, Old Salt Union returned to the studio to cut their second album for Compass, and Where the Dogs Don't Bite was released in August 2019. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Mark Deming, Rovi