The Voluntary String Band has been a staple of the Flagstaff music scene for years and has included a broad lineup of some of the best acoustic pickers and most vibrant personalities around. The VSB, while it may resemble a traditional string band lineup instrument-wise, stretches its sounds far beyond bluegrass and old timey music while maintaining strong ties to the roots of it all.
The band’s four members’ varying influences range from bluegrass pioneers Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs and newgrass virtuosos Belá Fleck, Tony Rice, Sam Bush and Alison Krauss, all the way to gypsy guitar master Django Reinhardt, the Rolling Stones, Steve Earle, Gram Parsons, David Bowie, Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck.
The four-piece VSB includes Kristin Straka (formerly of Second Harvest, the Mars Hillbillies, and several other well-known Flagstaff bands) on fiddle and vocals; Matt Robinson (the sole founding Volunteer) on five-string banjo; Joe Sorren (formerly of Flagstaff’s Lyle and Sparkleface Band, the Memphis Laundramatte, and the Mars Hillbillies) on standup bass, backing vocals and the occasional mandolin chuck; and Ryan Heinsius (formerly of Flag bands Virgil Caine, the Mars Hillbillies, and the Memphis Laundramatte) on acoustic guitar and vocals.
The VSB has shared the stage with 2005 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition winners the Badly Bent as well as Colorado neo-traditionalist madmen Boulder Acoustic Society. They also were honored to have played the second annual Pickin’ in the Pines Bluegrass and Acoustic Music Festival in Flagstaff, Arizona, where they shared the stage with the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, Chatham County Line, Sweet Sunny South, the Kruger Brothers, and their great Flagstaff friends Muskellunge Bluegrass and Burnett Family Bluegrass.
The VSB is extremely proud to offer its debut album, No Worse for the Wear, which was recorded one chilly, early spring night in March '08 live around one mic in their small Flagstaff rehearsal space.
TO RECEIVE PERIODIC UPDATES on VSB live shows, recording projects and all that good stuff, drop us an e-mail at [email protected] .
