On the title track to their debut LP Sake of the Sound, Front Country‘s Melody Walker sings of the healing power of music (“When it hits you, you gonna feel no pain”) while imploring the Oakland band’s audience to grasp the band’s personal investment in its craft (“Feel the room shake – can you hear my heart break? I’m in love with the sound”), laying bare the dual nature of music’s emotional impact. The song – which finds itself at a similarly beautiful intersection between bluegrass and, well, fist-pumping, foot-stomping rock – is impossible to resist.

Front Country released an EP entitled This is Front Country in 2013 before returning to the studio earlier this year to record Sake of the Sound. The band – which includes Walker (vocals/guitar), Adam Roszkiewicz (mandolin), Jacob Groopman (guitar/vocals), Jordan Klein (banjo/vocals), Leif Karlstrom (violin), and Zach Sharpe (bass) – incorporates many sounds on the new album, whether it be bluegrass, rock, folk, pop, or gospel.

Sake of the Sound dropped back in September, and Front Country took off on a cross-country tour that returned to the West Coast last Friday with a show in Santa Cruz. Now, this touring band is making the rounds in NorCal, playing shows from San Jose to Placerville and even Winters (that’s in Yolo County, in case you were wondering), as well as a record release show at Slim’s on November 15. And, if that wasn’t enough live bluegrass for you, Rozkiewicz and Karlstrom have a separate project, a mandolin and fiddle duo named Small Town Therapy that plays the Mission District’s Atlas Cafe this Thursday night.

Stream Sake of the Sound below, and get full details on all of Front Country’s upcoming gigs.

10/17 – Winters, CA – Palms Playhouse
10/24 – Sebastopol, CA – Hopmonk Tavern
10/25 – Placerville, CA – Hangtown Halloween Ball
10/26 – Placerville, CA – Hangtown Halloween Ball
11/08 – San Jose, CA – The Woodshed
11/15 – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s