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Split Lip Rayfield brings fast picking to Breck

ANDY FRAMEsummit daily news
Special to the Daily/Dimitris SklirisSplit Lip Rayfield plays Sherpa and Yeti's tonight in Breckenridge. The show starts at 9 p.m., and costs $6. Left to right, Jeff Eaton, Wayne Gottstine, Kirk Rundstrom, and Eric Mardis.
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BRECKENRIDGE – Don’t tell Kirk “the monster truck” Rundstrom he plays in a bluegrass band. “We’re not a bluegrass band,” said Rundstrom, the guitarist in Split Lip Rayfield. “We just play bluegrass instruments.”Split Lip Rayfield, made up of Rundstrom on guitar, Eric Mardis on banjo, Wayne Gottstine on mandolin and Jeff Eaton on the one-string gas tank bass, is a fusion of country, rock ‘n’ roll, punk, bluegrass and Americana six years in the making. Split Lip Rayfield will play its short, hard-driving acoustic songs at Sherpa & Yeti’s at 9 o’clock tonight.

Proud of the band’s Wichita, Kan., roots, Rundstrom is not afraid to stand up to traditional bluegrass fans that might scoff at the way the members of Split Lip Rayfield play and treat their instruments.”They didn’t like Bill Monroe when he started either,” Rundstrom said. “We’re about playing original music that we write and we like.”After opening up for the Rev. Horton Heat last January at Sherpa & Yeti’s, owners brought back Split Lip Rayfield to headline its own show in March. In the midst of a seemingly never-ending tour where they’ve played at least 12 shows per month for 14 months straight, Rundstrom is pleased to be back in Summit County.

“We’re running around the country like chickens with our heads cut off,” Rundstrom said. “I absolutely love being in Colorado. I want to move there.”Split Lip Rayfield is now touring in support of its fourth studio album released in October, “Should Have Seen It Coming.” While the new album is loaded with lyrics of lost love, much of its older material centers around more taboo subjects, such as God and murder.”What’s funner to talk about than death and religion?” Rundstrom said.



With a new CD out and more cross-country touring in the future, Rundstrom said the band isn’t thinking too far in the future. “The main thing is to get through today,” Rundstrom said. “We’re just trying to become better musicians and better people.” Andy Frame can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 236, or at aframe@summitdaily.com.


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