9:00pm - $10 Cover

Maryland-based country singer Karen Collins formed the Backroads Band in 2004. She had just released her solo project Backroads and Bayous and begun writing her own songs, and started the band so she could perform the kind of country music she’d heard while growing up in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. She drafted Ira Gitlin to play lead guitar, and with a succession of bass players and drummers  the band has been going strong ever since, performing throughout the mid-Atlantic states and in Austin, Texas.

The group’s two CDs, Tail Light Blues (2007) and No Yodeling on the Radio (2012), have earned critical acclaim for their retro country sound and for Karen’s witty and heartfelt original songs. The band and its individual members have several shelves full of  Wammie awards from the Washington Area Music Association, and three of their songs have been played on National Public Radio’s popular program Car Talk.