Downhill Bluegrass Band The Band Downhill bluegrass band was formed with the intentions to play traditionally rooted bluegrass with a contemporary flair. Sharing the same musical ideas and sources for inspiration they started to play together 1998. Since then they have worked hard to establish them self as a high octane bluegrass band on the International music scene. Downhill have developed an own style and originality by blending their own songwriting abilities with the high lonesome sound of pioneers like Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers They've gained great response from listeners all over the world, touring both in Europe and the USA. The band members are: Jonas Kjellgren on mandolin and vocals, Kenneth Kjellgren on banjo, Christoffer Olsson on guitar and vocals, Jan Ekman on dobro and Jimmy Sunnebrandt on bass and vocals The New CD During the dog days of 2003 they made a very successful US tour and shared the stage with bands and bluegrass icons like Blue Highway, Larry Sparks, Nashville Bluegrass Band and Ralph Stanley among others. This was a very inspiring and rewarding experience and it made them travel back to Sweden filled with new impressions and ideas. Things that led them into the studio, to record their third CD "That One Straight Line". This is their first CD with their newest member, multi instrumentalist and songwriter Christoffer Olsson. On this CD they also invited guest artist to participate. Annsofie Lindstrom sings on the duet "Where roses Never Die" and Mikael Grund sings his own song "Into The Blue". The most well known songs for the bluegrass audience is maybe "Poor Rambler", "Home From The Forrest" and "She's Gone Gone Gone" but here is also other material like "Only Then Will Your House Be Blessed" and a lot of original material written by the band members, such as the up tempo song "In The Shadow Of A Broken Heart" and more bluesy songs like "That One Straight Line". On this CD there's music for both hard core bluegrass fans and regular music lovers. The Story There are those days, that feel like a big, wet blanket. What keeps a band together, to travel far in poor vehicles, playing at abandoned pizza-places and rehearse for years in a cold, damp living room, and without making a dime. You look down on your instrument without recognition. The strings feel like fishing line on a bad spinning rod, the pick is a woolen mitten and your voice turns halfway, gurgling in your lungs. You take a look around and wonder who you're with and why. What ... Oh gosh! What's this song gonna be like? The Base grumbles like a partially deaf pensioner swindled out of his last coupon. The Banjo scratches the surface of your skin, digging deeper through the layers of extinct dreams. The Dobro hesitates and cries the cry of a deer run over. The Guitar boils over and gets stuck to the curtain, the room smells, someone smells a lot more. The Mandolin doesn't any longer exist as vision or sound and you don't care. Everything is floating, on its back, cold, lifeless and... And then, without warning, the room flows with a warm, red light. Every piece falls, so slowly and so beautifully, into place and there is no longer any need to explain, just play, play together. And those moments, those short flashes of clarity are worth everything and the wish to return to that moment, when all is a unity makes it all worth while. Downhill write new pages on their story as the road goes on.