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Members of Railroad Earth aren't losing sleep about what "kind" of music they play - they just play it. When they started out in 2001, they were a bunch of guys interested in playing acoustic instruments together. As Railroad Earth violin/vocalist Tim Carbone recalls, "All of us had been playing in various projects for years, and many of us had played together in different projects. But this time, we found ourselves all available at the same time."

Acoustic guitar/lead vocalist Todd Sheaffer continues, "When we started, we only loosely had the idea of getting together and playing some music. It started that informally; just getting together and doing some picking and playing. Over a couple of month period, we started working on some original songs, as well as playing some covers that we thought would be fun to play." Shortly thereafter, they took five songs from their budding repertoire into a studio and knocked out a demo in just two days. Their soon-to-be manager sent that demo to a few festivals, and â€" to the band's surprise â€" they were booked at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival before they'd even played their first gig. This prompted them to quickly go in and record five more songs; the ten combined tracks of which made up their debut album, "The Black Bear Sessions."

That was the beginning of Railroad Earth's journey: since then, they've released three more studio albums, two on Sugar Hill Records (2002's "Bird In A House" and 2004's "The Good Life") and one on SCI Fidelity (2008's "Amen Corner"). They've also amassed a huge and loyal fanbase that follows them from show to show, taking advantage of the band's liberal taping policy.

Railroad Earth certainly thrives in a live setting, as their stunning 2006 live album, "Elko," is certian proof of that. It's no secret that improvisation is one of the RRE's big strengths. But what really sets them apart is the strength of their songwriting. It was the strength of those first five songs that got them on the bill at Telluride. And they've only gotten better since then.