The Hackensaw Boys

Charlottesville, Va., band mixes traditional musicianship with modern stories

'It's a pretty sweaty, good dancing, fun time every time."

At least that's what Rob Bullington has seen in the 10 years he's played in and toured with The Hackensaw Boys.

"It's acoustic American secular gospel fun hippy dance music that you can relax to," Bullington said.

The group started as a mix of guys meshed into a not-so-organized group.

A decade ago, roughly a dozen guys in their early 20s met on Friday afternoons at The Blue Moon Diner in Charlottesville, Va. They picked up their instruments — the guitar, accordion, banjo, fiddle and more — and played a few songs, mostly covers. They hoped to have some fun, make a few dollars and maybe score a couple of free beers.

The band lucked out and lasted because soon after the band formed, the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou" was a hit. The movie's success and its bluegrass soundtrack supported any underground folk revival and gave a boost of energy to The Hackensaw Boys, Bullington said.

National interest in folk and bluegrass tunes from an earlier era helped them get gigs and confidence.

"We grew up listening to everything from punk rock to hip-hop," Bullington said. "There's a whole world of influence."

As one of the original members,

Bullington has watched the band lose and gain members. But everyone in the band currently has been in the band for at least three years. It's doubtful any of the members consider The Hackensaw Boys a career, but most work very flexible jobs that allow for the group's tours. The group is using this tour to test out material for their next album.

Now, almost a decade later, the group has steadied with six consistent members, based largely in the Virginia-area.

What genre The Hackensaw Boys play varies from ear to ear. Whether you call it folk, Americana, bluegrass, country or something else, whatever it is, they like it because the sounds and the instruments challenge them.

"It's so simple and its so pure and yet you can keep reinventing it over and over again and it doesn't get old," Bullington said.

But, even though the style is from a past generation for a group of guys in their early 30s, their stories aren't. They write and play about things in their lives: loves, losses, experiences and thoughts.

"We don't try to write a song about a train or a miner or being a mole in the ground," Bullington said. "We're just as likely to write about SUVs and airplanes. A lot of bands that do what we do try to be traditional. We occasionally do sing a song about a train, but we also sing about things that are around us happening right now."