The bluegrass Americana roots band Bearfoot has come a long way since Angela Oudean and Jason Norris met 11 years ago in Alaska as music camp counselors. They were 16 years old at the time.
Some things (including Bearfoot's musical lineup) have changed for them in the last decade or so, Oudean said in an interview, but not everything.
"We still definitely want to do this and put all our hearts and souls into it," she said. "We've been practicing a ton and we just went on our first shows and they went awesome."
Bearfoot will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Grand Forks at UND Chester Fritz Auditorium. The new shows they have gone on have been with three new band members who have joined the group in the past four months.
Oudean (vocals and violin) and Norris (mandolin, fiddle and vocals) will be on stage with Nora Jane Struthers, guitar and vocals; P.J. George, bass and vocals; and Todd Greve, guitar and vocals. Struthers and Greve are songwriters, too, and that has brought another strength to Bearfoot.
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Based out of Nashville, the band sometimes collaborates on songwriting, as they did during a recent van trip.
"Nora Jane and Todd are songwriters, so they're always thinking about writing songs," Oudean said. "They were thinking of what kind of songs we needed, so they started working on a sexy girl song."
Pretty soon, everyone was pitching ideas for "When You're Away," which is the working title for a fun and sexy song about what a wife does when her husband is away, Oudean said.
Bearfoot may not live in Alaska anymore, but Alaska has made an imprint on the band's music, she said.
"We've played a lot of varieties of music," she said. "We're not just a traditional bluegrass band or folk band. In Alaska, there are not a lot of people, so everywhere we went, there was a mix of music. So we always had an interest and respect for lots of kinds of music in Alaska."
Today, Bearfoot is an Americana roots band that plays blues, bluegrass, country and folk, "even some swing-y sounding stuff," Oudean said. About two-thirds of what they perform is original music.
"We like to take people on a ride, basically," she said. "You'll get your slow, sad numbers and then the really rowdy, happy numbers."
In its 11 years, Bearfoot has released four CDs, including 2009 Compass Records debut, "Doors And Windows." Early in the band's history, it earned one of roots music's most prestigious awards as Telluride Bluegrass Band Champions.
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Tickets for the Tuesday night show range in price from $10 to $25 are available at the Chester Fritz box office or by calling (701) 777-4090.
Reach Tobin at (701) 780-1134; (800) 477-6572, ext. 134; or send e-mail to ptobin@gfherald.com .
