Up in the northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the Low Water Bridge Band is a good-time regional country band, with a solid mountainous groove, that you’d want to keep the party going at the local roadhouse on Saturday night.  While You Tube indicates they do some covers (from the likes of The Steeldrivers and Jason Isabel), their debut album from this Americana band based in Berryville, Va. features ten original songs written by Logan Moore, Alex Kerns and Sandra Lyerly Carr.

The band got its start picking tunes around a campfire at a late-night jam at the Watermelon Park Bluegrass Festival. The Low Water Bridge Band is Logan Moore (guitar, lead vocals), Alex Kerns (bass, vocals), Riley Kerns (drums, vocals), Cory Kreitzer (mandolin), James Montgomery (electric guitar, banjo) and Stacey Sinclair (fiddle).  Guests Keith Dill and Stephen Keuster lay in some pedal steel twang on a few tracks. The Low Water Bridge Band is the kind of country band that is most comfortable in blue jeans, flannel shirts, boots and ball caps. 

The Low Water Bridge Band has a few nostalgic tales (“Cedarwood Fields”), but the real strength in their roots country, with bluegrass and Cajun colorings, is when they paint impressionistic pictures of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Songs like “Headwinds” (inspired by a trip down the Shenandoah River), “Last Minute Morels” (searching for mushrooms) “Auburn Ellie” (crying to the hound when sighting a fox) create some vivid images.    

“Sorry Mans Waltz” was based on a true story, and Logan Moore conveys poignant messages in “Home” and in his lively tale of loneliness with a jug of whiskey, “Midnight in Virginia.” I especially liked the inclusion of occasional sound effects of trains, turkeys and crickets that transport us right there to their front porch. Logan Moore also tells me, “In April, we’re releasing two new singles, ‘Too Stoned to Care’ and ‘High, Blue & Lonesome,’ and we’re working on our next album.” 

The Low Water Bridge Band clearly has some instrumental and vocals talents to turn some heads, so take notice of this up-and-coming Virginia band. When the area warms up in spring and summer, storms with heavy rain bring flooding. With so many creeks in the Valley, they also have a lot of low water bridge crossings that are built lower to the ground over creeks and flood more often. Much like the water flowing swiftly over a low water bridge, this band’s spry music streams along much like a journey through mountain life itself. (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)