The Barefoot Movement - Live in L.A. (2016)

While it's tempting to term the Barefoot Movement a bluegrass band, they're really more of a 21st century Appalachian string band, mixing country and folk, and even a little rock, into an Americana roots blend that features reimagined traditional songs and ballads alongside original material, all with a pop sense at work, too. The band had its beginnings during the teen years of singer, songwriter, and fiddler Noah Wall in Oxford, North Carolina. Wall had just begun writing her own songs when she met mandolinist Tommy Norris, both then in their senior years at high school. They clicked as musicians, and when both went off to college, Wall to East Tennessee State, where she studied in the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music program, and Norris to Western Carolina University, where he studied classical music and recording engineering, they always intended to put a string band together. Along with a friend, Quentin Acres, Wall and Norris recorded a debut album, Footwork, calling themselves the Barefoot Movement. Just prior to graduating from East Tennessee State, Wall met upright bassist Hasee Ciaccio, who was also a singer, making the Barefoot Movement a quartet. When Acres departed the group, singer and guitarist Alex Conerly replaced him, and the Barefoot Movement successfully hit the bluegrass festival circuit, where the fact that they took the stage barefoot just added to the band's appealing back-porch style. The band released a second full-length, Figures of the Year, in 2013, following it with an EP of traditional covers, The High Road, in 2014. ~ Steve Leggett