Nu-Blu: Realizing Authenticity

Americana and bluegrass band Nu-Blu has had a core of authenticity driving it forward for two decades. Celebrating its 20th year, the group, led by husband-and-wife team Daniel and Carolyn Routh and joined by bandmates Austin Hefflefinger and Justin Harrison, has had a long and meaningful journey in the music business.

Their 20th-anniversary album, “Where You’ve Been,” takes their fans on a journey filled with life’s crossroads and inflection points. The album features work by guest collaborators Sharon White, Ricky Skaggs, Jim Peterik, and Jody McBrayer. Each song is about scary, sad, exciting, happy, or just plain memorable times when decisions are made and life paths are forged. 

“Every song on the album is a song that could be one of those major life choices,” explained Daniel Routh. He said the record is a true listening experience, made in the style of the great albums of old; it’s a cohesive whole, with each number related to the theme. 

“We want it to be a journey,” he summarized.

“It’s about the poignant decisions in life,” he explained. “I call them ‘right angle’ decisions.”

Something else also harkens back to the past days of the album experience. In addition to the CD and digital formats, you can listen to “Where You’ve Been” on a turntable: It’s the first album Nu-Blu has released on vinyl.

“Two things also happened that had never happened before during the 20 years of Nu-Blu,” Daniel explained. “The first song that charted from the album is the one I sing on.” 

For those unfamiliar with Nu-Blu, the sometimes sweet, sometimes powerful lead vocals had usually been Carolyn’s job. Charting with this is a fresh, unexpected change of pace, but apparently, it wasn’t enough. “And then, the second song…it charted as Nu-Blu’s first ever instrumental, written by our own Justin Harrison.”

Carolyn has quite a bit to say about what inspires her.

“Song selection is so, so vital to our projects and us personally,” she said. “We really want the music to be a strong lyrical song and a strong instrumental, but we also want them to convey…ourselves.”

On this release, every song is an original. Whether it was written by Nu-Blu or someone else, all the music has never been recorded. Each song was chosen because it met the most critical criterion: it struck a meaningful emotional nerve. Carolyn, Daniel, or one of the other bandmates related to it. Or, it made someone cry. Or even, it made them all cry. 

The Rouths both speak of the importance of song lyrics, perhaps above all else. Arousing deep emotion is the actual litmus test.

“We discuss it and make sure it touches us in some way,” Carolyn explained. “There are many special moments on the album throughout.”

Carolyn recounted the story of the first Nu-Blu tune that made her cry real tears during the creative process. It was from their 2017 “Vagabonds” album. The song was “Gypsies on Parade,” an 80s-era Mark Miller-penned song popularized by Sawyer Brown.

“That’s the first song that I ever stood in the studio and cried when I was recording it,” she reminisced. “And it still touches me today.”

“We have to feel the music,” her husband added. “Whether we wrote it or whether someone else wrote it. If you’re playing a song you don’t have an attachment to, you’re just playing a tune, and the lyrics are placeholders.” 

Nu-Blu wants none of that. No doubt, “connecting” to the music is just one means of striving for genuine authenticity. Recently, they had what they described as a sort of lightbulb moment about one of the finer traits of their band. They were working with some new behind-the-scenes team members for this new record. For instance, a new publicist and new social media people. When planning for the record release, these new folks reinforced that Nu-Blu didn’t need any slick marketing ideas. What they had was already in place, and it was plenty.

“All of these people have all come back to us at separate times,” Daniel explained, “and everybody’s like…all of your music has so much authenticity. So let the music speak for itself.”

That notion hit home, and they’ve now taken it to heart. No more worries over how to reach fans. They already do it just fine, intuitively. Being genuine has worked well for all these years and will keep defining Nu-Blu going forward.

When asked about future goals, they envisioned opportunities that would help propel bluegrass forward and be enjoyed by new converts. Part of that is the couple's work in broadcasting; when not making music, they’re hosts of the syndicated TV show Bluegrass Ridge.

It’s in gigging, though, that they hope to have the most future impact on the bluegrass genre. Today, Daniel said Nu-Blu plays many venues that are not exclusive to bluegrass, so they are constantly reaching new listeners. He hopes they can amp up that idea even more in the coming years.

“I would love to see us opening for national acts in bigger arenas,” he said. “I wanna find another artist that we can do a partnership with.” That partner might come from the country, rock, or another avenue. It’s not about venue size or type, but about opening up more people to music that makes the Rouths feel.

“I look forward to each and every person who discovers Nu-Blu and finds the music resonates with them,” he said. “It’s one personal connection at a time.”