Bluegrass pays the bills for Bread and Butter Band

The Bread and Butter Band, out of Asheville, likes to call itself a bluegrass band and, as a four-piece acoustic group with female and male lead vocals and lots of harmony, it certainly has the set up. But it’s more than that.

The upright bass, bluegrass banjo and shredding guitar complement the harmonies of Sean Patterson, Tim Comstock and Nicole Kendle, all of it accentuated by the dynamic fiddle playing of Aaron Farmer. The band’s music is categorically bluegrass and roots, but it stretches across genres and borders. There are strong whiffs of blues and country in the vocals, with a distinctly Appalachian-feeling fiddle, all meshing to create a down-home mountain sound.

The band got together in 2012. Competing in a songwriters competition, Kendle on banjo won a qualifying event and decided to put a band together for the final round. The musicians practiced together a couple of times in a little house Kendle was renting in Black Mountain, near hole 5 of the Black Mountain Golf Course. They lost the competition. But the band was born.

The most bluegrass thing about the band is the instruments it plays. Its music retains several elements of bluegrass, but because the musicians have varied backgrounds and influences, it’s difficult to pigeonhole the band’s music.

Bass player Comstock grew up playing in punk and rock bands. Guitar player, Patterson was an almost exclusively and rock and blues player. Kendle grew up with a strong musical theater and classical background, while fiddle player Farmer, grew up in Candler playing mountain and traditional music before realizing he could fit the fiddle into about any music there is.

“We definitely combine all of these influences into what we are doing,” the band said, “at the very least to keep things interesting for us and hopefully give the audience something a little different than what they are used to.”

The band plans to tour heavily for the rest of the year. At Pisgah Brewing, it will celebrate the release of its new album “Dead End Road.” Also playing will be The Accomplices Band from Savannah, Georgia.

CD release party

What: Bread and Butter Band

When: 8 p.m. May 24

Where: Pisgah Brewing Co., Black Mountain

Cost: $9 advance, $12 door

Buy: www.pisgahbrewing.com/