VAIL, Colorado — There's a reason it takes modern day bluegrass bands like Head for the Hills — who play in Vail Saturday — a solid five or six minutes to explain a seemingly simple question — how do you describe your music.Turns out it's a somewhat complicated question, mainly because many of the newgrass bands out there — New Grass Revival, Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, The String Cheese Incident, Head For The Hills are just a few of them on the scene — are trying to push the boundaries of the bluegrass genre, while simultaneously upholding its roots and honoring the musicians who came before. That means its not as simple as just saying “bluegrass,” and leaving it at that.

“We always struggle with putting a label on our type of music,” said Joe Lessard, singer, fiddler and beatboxer for Fort Collins-based Head For The Hills. “We're like, should we just call it progressive bluegrass? Someone said bluegrass fusion but then we have this fear that fusion has a negative connotation. Basically its all sorts of music done with our bluegrass instruments.”

The band returns to Vail Saturday night for a show at the Sandbar in West Vail. Tickets are $10 and available at the door.

In fact, in many ways Lessard said bluegrass is following in the footsteps of jazz, in that the listener base and the musicians themselves are far more sophisticated these days.

“There's a lot more super smart people who are more educated and open minded then ever,” Lessard said during a phone interview this week. “Bluegrass always required a high level of skill and virtuosity even to actually pull it off, but its moving in the direction of jazz in that it appeals to a lot of different demographics.”

‘A loyal following'

Though the band got its start in 2003 when the members (Lessard; Adam Kinghorn on guitar, banjo and vocals; Matt Loewen on bass, clarinet and vocals; Mike Chappell on mandolin and vocals) met while attending Colorado State University, its really in the past year or two that they've come into their own.

“Much like Yonder Mountain String Band did years before them, local bluegrass favorites Head for the Hills have built a loyal following within Colorado and far beyond,” said Crawford Byers of Rocky Mountain Entertainment, which booked the show. “They are now a respected national act, positioning themselves ahead of their bluegrass peers with excellent song writing, relentless touring and raw talent.”

Since the last time the band visited Vail about a year ago, they've had some exciting things happen. They released their sophomore, self-titled album last month. The album was produced by Drew Emmitt of Leftover Salmon acclaim and recorded at Bill Nershi's Sleeping Giant Studios in Nederland, near Boulder. Gus Skinas (Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, George Harrison) engineered the CD.

The quartet knocked out the album in about five days, “a total departure from the last album,” Lessard said, which was recorded over a span of a few months.

“We were trapped in the mountains, away from cell phone service, which resulted in a more fluid album,” Lessard said. “It's a much more accurate, representative product of what we actually do. Although the first album (”Robber is Roost”) is a collection of good songs, the playing is a little tight, it sounds like we're nervous and we were ... For this one, we were all in one room, around a bunch of microphones, with no headphones, and it has much more of the chemistry of how we play.”

As the band continues to grow their name locally, they have also set their sights outside of Colorado and this past summer they toured the west, hitting Montana, California and Utah. Just recently they spent 10 days playing gigs in Oregon and Washington.

Their goal, as is most bands, is to expose as many people as possible to their music, no matter how you want to label it.

High Life Editor Caramie Schnell can be reached at 970-748-2984 or cschnell@vaildaily.com.