Crooked Still is possibly the most unlikely bluegrass band playing today. The band has no fiddle, no mandolin and no guitar, but the quartet of Aoife O'Donovan (vocals), Dr. Gregory Liszt (banjo), Rushad Eggleston (cello) and Corey DiMario (bass) combines acoustic instrumentation, a deep respect for tradition and rock energy to develop a truly original sound.

Crooked Still released its self-produced debut, "Hop High," in 2004. The band's new record, "Shaken By A Low Sound," is now out on Signature Sounds. O'Donovan recently spoke about the development of the band, the advantages of their unorthodox instrumentation and the effect of the group's tremendous online presence on the growth of the band's audience.

CST: How did the band get together? A lot of you were students at neighboring colleges at around the same time.
AO'D: Corey and I were classmates at New England Conservatory of Music. We had performed together and were friends and hung out together. We met Rushad and Greg at a recital of a mutual friend at New England Conservatory. In September 2001, we got together and played some songs. I was actually asked to put together a band to perform at an orientation concert at New England Conservatory, and I called the guys. This was five years ago.
But we didn't start doing much outside of Boston until 2004. We've really only been a touring band since February 2004, when we went to Folk Alliance. Before that, we'd played a bunch of gigs in Boston, but no one else had really heard of us.

CST: Once you made the decision, things went fast for you. You've played Newport, you've played Rockygrass.
AO'D: The first two summer festivals we played were Falcon Ridge and Newport, which are two of the main folk festivals in the Northeast. We were in the right place at the right time.

CST: Obviously, the first thing people tend to notice about Crooked Still is the instrumentation.
AO'D: I thought you were going to say our dashing good looks.

CST: That's the second thing.
AO'D: The instrumentation...Yeah, it's pretty original. But it should be known that we never set out to be different. It wasn't like, "let's have a band with banjo and cello and not have a guitar and mandolin." We really liked hanging out and playing music with each other, and it kind of evolved from there. It was pretty organic, as opposed to deciding what instruments we were going to have in our "band."

CST: It's interesting that you say that because while it might have started out as a happenstance thing, based on personalities rather than actual instruments, now your website says, "Re-defining traditional music." Your record label's website says that you're "on a mission to bend the boundaries of traditional music." It seems at some point the decision was made that, "this is what we've got, now in what specific respect are we gonna go out and conquer the world?"
AO'D: It's definitely true. We are trying to re-define traditional music, and we are definitely on a mission to bend the boundaries. Our instrumentation is kind of secondary to that. On this new record, we do have fiddle on four tracks and guitar on two, and we have had to think about what we're going to have accompanying the core sound of the four of us. I think in terms of our mission to re-define the music and bend the boundaries and make people look differently at it, it kind of comes from doing these songs. I think one of the things that's kind of different from other bands is that we do songs that people know. We're not digging up a lot of songs that people have never heard of. A lot of bands shy away from that; they think, "everybody's done that song." But we do the song, and everybody knows it, but people say, "whoa, I've never heard it like that."

CST: With your type of instrumentation, it's almost by definition a new song.
AO'D: Exactly. We love doing songs like "Railroad Bill" on our new record. Everybody knows that song. People say, "Oh man, I used to sing that when I was a kid, my mom used to sing that song, although it's a pretty twisted song. Well, people know that song, and they get really excited when they hear us do it.

CST: One thing I noticed when listening to the CD is that Rushad is using the cello as almost a tenor fiddle, while at the same time, what Greg is doing is very much non-traditional banjo playing. There are hardly any three-finger rolls on there or anything that we might understand as part of a "bluegrass" recording.
AO'D: Right. I think on "Hop High," Rushad was a lot more of a tenor fiddle. But I think that his sound has really evolved, similar to Greg. Greg did a lot more three-finger rolls and Scruggs licks on "Hop High," but on this record, Greg is definitely not playing traditional banjo. It's much more riff-based and rock-influenced.

CST: In some spots, it's almost like he's focusing on single-note, single-string rock guitar-type playing.
AO'D: For sure. And then Rushad is focusing more on being the riff guitarist.

CST: Your instrumentation has certainly opened up a world of new possibilities for you. In what ways might it have limited you?
AO'D: It's really hard for us to play waltzes. I mean, we really barely ever play songs in three (three-quarter or waltz time). We do one waltz, and sometimes you kind of want a guitar to just chunk away at the waltz. But I don't really see our instrumentation in terms of limiting; if we want to do something, we do it. We'll make it work.

CST: Well, you've got your myspace page, you did the CD Baby thing with "Hop High," you've got a huge online presence through a number of sites, one of which is the livedownload.com site, where you're actually offering a live show for sale.
AO'D: Did you listen to it?

CST: Not yet. I'm looking forward to doing that.
AO'D: You definitely should. It's one of the best sets we ever played. It was at Grey Fox.

CST: Well, what's that like, having a live set for sale online without having to go through the machinations of preparing a live CD for release through normal channels?
AO'D: It's awesome. They contacted us, and we agreed that they could record our show. No big deal. We did two sets at Grey Fox. We were so exhausted and so hot. Grey Fox was like a billion degrees this year. Rushad and I had taken the redeye from California the night before. Our first set was kind of haphazard. We stayed up all night. Literally - I went to bed at seven a.m. We got out of our tent at 8:30, and we had to play at 11 a.m. Everybody was exhausted. So we get up onstage, and it's 11 in the morning, and it's literally 95 degrees, and I just felt like we kicked ass. We really went for it and had so much fun. We played a bunch of songs from "Hop High" and two instrumentals that have never been recorded, a Hank Williams song that's never been released. It was really cool, and at the time, I don't think we even remembered that we were being recorded. That's very different from making a live album, where you plan everything, and there's kind of this nerve level. They ended up capturing this great set...

CST: How much of a factor has this tremendous online presence been in the growth of the band in the last two years? It seems like you're working that angle particularly hard.
AO'D: It's been huge, I think. The whole myspace thing has been pretty amazing, especially with teenagers. My little sister is a teenager and has a myspace page, and so do all her friends who might not be exposed to this type of music in other places. You look at their pages and see who they like musically, and it's Pink and Kelly Clarkson...and Crooked Still. It's like this word of mouth thing, for kids and also for people of all ages. It's just a great way to stay in touch with people and for fans to get up close and personal with you even if it's online. And with CD Baby, the sales of our first CD were huge for us. I could not believe how incredible that organization is. I think everyone should buy independent CDs from CD Baby. But the whole online thing is amazing. People hear you, and they Google you, and they find your website and your myspace page and your CD Baby page and everything.

CST: You and similarly situated artists have the freedom to build and maintain and control the relationship with your audience.
AO'D: Oh, yes.

CST: But at the same time, you've now signed with a label.
AO'D: Signature is a label that's also really clued in to the whole internet thing. It's one of the few labels that sells their CDs on CD Baby. I think they're right there with the indie artists.

CST: How much of a factor was the label in the decision-making process for the new record?
AO'D: Well, (Signature Sounds owner) Jim Olsen is pretty much the coolest guy in the world. He's really got it together and knows what's going on, and he was totally open to anything we wanted to do. He's been behind us 100 percent of the time. He's really pushing the record, and I think the record has a lot of potential to reach a major audience.

CST: Unlike a lot of other new bands, the four of you have very impressive individual resumes ...Rushad's work with Darol Anger, everybody with the Wayfaring Strangers...could you talk about the way the various individual influences have helped the band define its sound?
AO'D: Well, more than defining our sound, it's helped shape our comfort level with being ourselves. When we first started, it was great for me to not just be in Crooked Still, but to also go be in the Wayfaring Strangers and for Rushad to be playing with Darol Anger. I think subsequently it let us be more comfortable being really original doing what we were doing. In terms of what we do now, it's like we can really find our own voice.

CST: To what extent do you have to juggle commitments?
AO'D: We do have a lot of other stuff going on. Crooked Still is not a full-time band, and we have no plans to become a full-time band. We're just going to ride the wave and see what we can do when we can do it. It keeps all of us interested in being in Crooked Still.