Band Bio Update

Lost Highway, a California bluegrass institution, is on their fourth European tour in November 2006, and they continue to appear from coast to coast in the U.S. and Canada. Five new recordings have been released in the last two years: Bluegrass the Way You Like It, Bluegrass Gospel Compilation, Heaven's Got an Angel, Ken Orrick & J.T. Young Sing Gospel Favorites and Eric Uglum's Shenandoah Wind.

The Lost Highway sound is built around the smooth lead singing and rhythm guitar of Ken Orrick. His rich, soulful voice and fine original songs written in a traditional style further enhance the group's trademark style. His edgy baritone conveys heartfelt nuances of emotion without sounding like he is trying. Ken has a gift of writing outstanding personal songs about life experiences we all share-stories we want to hear of good people we loved, heartaches present or those laid to rest in the past. Ken's guitar work is influenced by mentors like The Stanley Brother, Larry Sparks, Lester Flatt and Melvin Goins.

Eric Uglum, a founding member of the nationally-known bands Weary Hears and New Wine, applies his powerful and heartfelt vocals along with expressive lead playing and insistent, clean rhythm on both mandolin and guitar. Eric's clear, effortless high tenor gives the band the reach needed for an A-List bluegrass band repertoire. His guitar style is unique, understated and refined-never meant to draw attention away form the song, but rather to fully complement it.

Joe Ash, a graduate of South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, handles the bass playing duties for Lost Highway and has been performing traditional music in and around the Bakersfield areas for a number of years. Growing up in a very musical family, he started playing guitar at age nine. He performed previously with Pacific Crest and Ron Spears & Within Tradition.

Matt Hotte on fiddle and Josh Tharpe are the newest members of the band: Matt Hotte is a young man (17 years of age) and well aware of where he wants to go with his traditional bluegrass music. Matt plays all instruments. His favorite is the fiddle. He has played mostly banjo with Liberty Bluegrass, a Texax based band, and is making fans all across the country. Matt lives near Edmonton, Alberta Canada. His father and mother and younger sister all play and perform some bluegrass music shows. Matt has a vast knowledge of bluegrass music. His future is wide open and he will surely make his mark deeper into traditional bluegrass music.

Josh Tharp (banjo) was born in Phoenix, Arizona on August 30, 1982, he is a third generation Arizona Native with deep Southern roots. His first taste of music was at church, he was the roadie for the trumpet / saxophone player on the worship team, he also played the clarinet for a short time in grade school, but quickly gave that up for the bells (closest thing they had to the piano). In Junior High School he continued to play the bells, but also played the keyboards in the jazz band. He started to play the bass in his freshman year of High School, mostly with his Dad at church and family gatherings. Sometime in the summer of 1998 he got the crazy notion that he wanted to play the banjo, he finally got hold of a tenor banjo and it didn't take him long to figure out that was not what he was looking for. Then he got his first five string banjo and fell into the world of bluegrass. After graduating High School in 2000, Josh attended Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, were he was taught to build and repair stringed instruments. After graduating from there he took some piano tuning and repair classes at Glendale Community College. Since his encounter with the banjo there has only been one other love in his life a one hundred and ten pound redhead named Ruby. He used to play with Just N Time Bluegrass, a family band with his parents, until he was invited to join Lost Highway this past August

Traditional bluegrass has been sinking roots in California since the 1960s, and Lost Highway proves the genre is still growing strong on the left coast.

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