Stringdusters Hold Court at Long's Park
By Lori Van Ingen, Staff Writer
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Aug 24, 2009
Nelson and Esther Hostetter were front and center at Long's Park amphitheater long before The Infamous Stringdusters took the stage Sunday evening
The Hostetters were waiting to hear their grandson, Travis Book, who plays upright bass for the bluegrass band.
The Hostetters, who recently moved from their Akron home to Landis Homes Retirement Community in Lititz, said they were "thrilled" their grandson would be performing in Lancaster, even though they have not been longtime bluegrass fans.
"It's great, the fact that he's in a band of this kind and doing well," Esther Hostetter said. "It's a mind-boggling surprise to us. Not in our wildest dreams."
Book had "dabbled" in piano, trombone and guitar before his mother, Kaye Book of Durango, Colo., got him a bass, his grandparents said.
The Nashville-based Stringdusters invited Book to audition for a spot in the band in 2003, the same year his previous band, Broke Mountain, won the Rockygrass Band Competition.
Although he didn't want to leave Colorado, his grandparents said, he decided to give it a try.
When he got the job, he said he'd try it for a year. He's been with the band for four years, marrying Nashville composer Sarah Sisking along the way.
Infamous Stringdusters at Long's Park
(Travis Book is 3rd from left with upright bass) The Infamous Stringdusters were named Emerging Artist of the Year in 2007 by the International Bluegrass Music Association, who also named the band's "Fork in the Road" Album of the Year and the album's title track Song of the Year.
As the temperature settled into the low 70s Sunday night, the band and the estimated crowd of 4,000 heated up.
Toes were tapping and about 100 people gravitated to the stage to jam and dance as the night wore on.
E-mail: lvaningen@lnpnews.com
© 2009 Lancaster Newspapers
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