Biography

Detour is a Michigan-based bluegrass band that combines original contemporary bluegrass sounds with great traditional favorites. The band's "My Life Just Ain't a Bluegrass Song," from its second album, "The Road That Lies Ahead," (2009, BlueGrass Ahead), placed in the BU top 30 and the Roots Music top 50 for six months in 2010.

The band’s talented line-up features the soaring lead vocals of Missy Armstrong, the championship fiddling of Peter Knupfer, the inventive rhythm lines of Jack Grant on bass, the soulful guitar of Scott Zylstra, the hard driving mandolin and superb song writing of Jeff Rose, and the stellar banjo playing of Kevin Gaugier. Detour has quickly become a standout — “a bluegrass joyride” that the Lansing State Journal acclaims as “perhaps the best bluegrass band Michigan has yet produced.”

"If you don't think of Michigan as a hotbed of bluegrass, Detour is the band that will change your mind. As musicians, singers, and songwriters, the members of Detour hold their own on any bluegrass stage. They're a thoroughly professional, highly entertaining band with a terrific repertoire of originals, classics, hot instrumentals, and a few surprises. For the total bluegrass package, take this Detour!" -- Bob Blackman, host of "The Folk Tradition," WKAR-FM, East Lansing, MI