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About the video
Front Range performs "The Hills That I Call Home"
About the artists
Virtuoso instrumentations and luscious three- and four-part vocal harmonies
have made Front Range one of the best bands on the contemporary bluegrass
circuit. While their albums are rooted in the traditional sounds of Bill Monroe and
Flatt & Scruggs, the band has incorporated influences ranging from the Beatles,
Robert Johnson, Celtic and classical music. One Beautiful Morning, Front
Range's third album, was named Best Gospel Recording of 1995 by the
International Bluegrass Music Association; Ramblin' on My Mind, their fourth
album, reached the number three slot on the National Bluegrass Survey
compiled by Bluegrass Unlimited magazine and spent several weeks in the Top
Ten of the Gavin Americana charts in 1997.
Front Range is very much a group effort, with the personnel remaining
consistent from the beginning. Delaware-born Bob Amos sings lead vocals, plays
acoustic guitar and writes most of the band's songs. The product of a musical
family, Amos grew up listening to everything from opera to folk music, turning to
bluegrass after hearing a recording by the Stanley Brothers. With a master's
degree in geology, Amos worked as a geologist in Denver during the 1980s. He
currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and is working on his first
solo project, co-produced by David McLaughlin. Amos' song "Where the Wild
River Flows" was covered by Hot Rize.
A native of Wichita, Kansas, Ron Lynam plays banjo and guitar and sings bass
vocals. Lynam's earliest exposure to bluegrass came when he attended a
concert by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1971. While attending Wichita State
College, where he received a degree in anthropology, he performed with
numerous local bands. In 1978, Lynam moved to Colorado with a band, playing
music at night and working as a carpenter by day. In 1985, he returned to
college to get his teaching certificate. The same year, he won the Telluride
Bluegrass banjo contest, joined Front Range after receiving a phone call from
Amos. In 1997, he was named Best Banjo Player at the Rocky Mountain
Bluegrass Festival.
Denver-born Mike Lantz, who plays mandolin and sings tenor vocals, has
balanced his musical career with his work with kids at the Children's Hospital and
Denver school system. Bass player and baritone vocalist Bob Dick, a native of
Massachusetts, is the younger brother of banjo player Dave Dick of Salamander
Crossing. In addition to playing with several New England-based bluegrass
bands and filling in with such groups as the Tony Rice Unit, Dick solidified his
musical knowledge by studying jazz bass at Berklee College of Music in Boston.