FM: Was it hard coming in playing with a pair of brothers who have played together for their whole lives?

BF: Well the thing about it is, I don't tend to like to play real hard so in the beginning there were times where I could be overpowered a little bit just by the sheer funk of their playing. You know here I am with an acoustic banjo and the amplifying system is less than perfect still, so I couldn't get up over them, but as time has gone on I've grown stronger and they've grown more sensitive, I think. Somehow we've learned how to make it work together, we know when to hit it hard and when to leave space, and I think that's something you can't buy. Only years can create a musical relationship where you can play that way together.

FM: How has the band changed since Howard's departure?

BF: There's much less competition. We'll play hard and strong but its together. I miss the lyric stuff; we have a tendency to do more stuff with faster notes, or it's harder to play a beautiful melody on a banjo or a bass than it is on a piano or a vocal-type instrument like a saxaphone or a harmonica or a voice or a violin, so the music does get faster and more rhythmic.

FM: What about playing live? How has that changed?

BF: If anything, it's even better: we read each other's minds. We know when we need to do something.

FM: Was there any sense of a mutual thing: he decided that he wanted to...

BF: Well he needed to go because he wasn't happy anymore and for that reason I thought he should go and I had to make a decision, so finally I said: "Look, you can't do your best, and we can't do our best if you're unhappy. If you go onstage unhappy then we're all miserable. So, I'm gonna tell you: you need to quit the band." People who know Howard real well said they weren't suprised Howard left the band, they were suprised that he was in the band. So I'm glad I got to play with him. He's one of those guys who's completely tapped in. He's one of those guys who can play something completely different every night. We do miss Howard, don't get me wrong, he was a part of our chemistry, but we've learned to make it work without him. Now we don't need to work the road just to develop a following, now we have a following. And we're doing really well turnout wise, I'd said better than we've ever done, moving into the theatres, out of the clubs, stuff like that. This year we're going to play about 120 [shows]. We're trying to get back into a balance, and that's what's going to let the new music come through.