Ed Helms is perhaps best known for playing Andy Bernard on TV's The Office and Dr. Stu Price in the Hangover films, but the actor/comedian is also a big bluegrass fan and will eventually release an album's worth of material with his group, Ed Helms & the Lonesome Trio.
Rolling Stone reports that Helms and bandmates Jacob Tilove and Ian Riggs, who have been playing together for almost 20 years, are in the midst of prepping a collection of bluegrass cuts that they hope to release sometime in the future. It would be the first time the group had released recordings beyond their circle of friends and family.
"We've been laying down some demos and kicking them back and forth," Helms said. "We've been playing together so long, we have so many original tunes. We've made recordings for friends and family for years but we've never done a proper album."
Helms added that some genre purists may turn up their noses at the troupe's style, which pays tribute to both classic and contemporary artists.
"I have a very liberal interpretation of the word 'bluegrass,'" he explained. "The purists would say it's only this traditional high lonesome sound and that is all stuff we celebrate. But to us it's anything that feels like a legitimate offspring form. That universe could be Mumford & Sons, the Decemberists and Old Crow Medicine Show."
Office fanatics will note that Helms's Andy Bernard character once serenaded Pam (aka actress Jenna Fischer) with a falsetto and banjo version of Kermit the Frog's "The Rainbow Connection." You can see him flex his five-string skills down below.
The as-yet-untitled album is not currently attached to a label, and Helms added that the group could issue the set online themselves.
Rolling Stone reports that Helms and bandmates Jacob Tilove and Ian Riggs, who have been playing together for almost 20 years, are in the midst of prepping a collection of bluegrass cuts that they hope to release sometime in the future. It would be the first time the group had released recordings beyond their circle of friends and family.
"We've been laying down some demos and kicking them back and forth," Helms said. "We've been playing together so long, we have so many original tunes. We've made recordings for friends and family for years but we've never done a proper album."
Helms added that some genre purists may turn up their noses at the troupe's style, which pays tribute to both classic and contemporary artists.
"I have a very liberal interpretation of the word 'bluegrass,'" he explained. "The purists would say it's only this traditional high lonesome sound and that is all stuff we celebrate. But to us it's anything that feels like a legitimate offspring form. That universe could be Mumford & Sons, the Decemberists and Old Crow Medicine Show."
Office fanatics will note that Helms's Andy Bernard character once serenaded Pam (aka actress Jenna Fischer) with a falsetto and banjo version of Kermit the Frog's "The Rainbow Connection." You can see him flex his five-string skills down below.
The as-yet-untitled album is not currently attached to a label, and Helms added that the group could issue the set online themselves.
