The Old Main, a bluegrass and rock group, is bringing its sound to the heart of New York.

The American folk rock band released a new album Saturday and will play with Todd Sheaffer at The Westcott Theater on Thursday at 8 p.m. The band has been together for three years, combining the talents of Seth Becker, Nash Robb and Mitch Eckler.

The high school dreams of lead vocalist Becker and bassist Robb are coming true as the band’s fanbase increases across the East Coast. Its latest album, “Too Far Gone,” is a continuation of the previously released album “Arlene.”

Past albums and shows were met with excitement, as The Old Main melds bluegrass and rock genres. The band hopes to play for an energetic audience to feed off of on Thursday at the theater. 

The Daily Orange: How long have you been performing together?

Seth Becker: We’re on our third year together. The bass man and I, Nash, have been in bands together since high school, and when our last band broke up, we knew we wanted to keep working together, so we decided to get a drummer, and we met Mitch through a band.

The D.O.: Where did you find inspiration for “Too Far Gone?”

S.B.: It was released on Saturday and it’s been a big release. We’ve been working on it for a couple months now. Because we’re just kind of constantly writing, there isn’t really a separation from our last album, so it just grows as the band grows. So we have some old songs that we brought it, so we just kind of record them as we go.

The D.O.: What makes your sound unique?

S.B.: We try to do a lively rock sound like Neil Young and Tom Petty and the Eagles but we try to do it with bluegrass music. Nash and I both grew up listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and John Denver, and when both of us were teenagers we started listening to a lot of punk music. So when we graduated from high school we wanted to meld those two together.

The D.O.: How did you get set up to perform with Todd Sheaffer?

S.B.: We work with The Westcott Theater together, and they reach out when they know a performer will work well with us. We figured that it would fit with Todd Shaeffer a little more, so we’re stripping it down with just bass and guitar, so Mitch won’t play.

The D.O.: What makes performing at The Westcott Theater unique? Is there something about the crowd that changes your performance?

S.B.: I always like how it’s kind of like a hippy crowd, where everyone is always just really into the music and really enjoys. It helps when we’re performing and we feed off the audience.

Published on October 3, 2017 at 10:57 pm

Contact Sarah: ssallam@syr.edu