Just try scanning the radio dial without the tuner landing on a foot-stomping, banjo-driven ditty.
That's good news for Big Daddy Love, a North Carolina quintet that boasts a sound the members have dubbed "Appalachian Rock."
"Imagine if Led Zeppelin had grown up on a dairy farm in the mountains," joked the band's banjo player, Brian Swenk. "That's one of the ways we like to describe our vibe."
It's a clever descriptor.
More important for the musicians, however, is the time they live in. As the saying goes, timing is everything, and right now it's cool to be a folksy rock band.
From recent Grammy winners Mumford & Sons to indie-folk hipsters the Avett Brothers, down-home rambling has never been cooler. But make no mistake: Big Daddy Love isn't simply chasing a trend. The band comes by its musical pedigree honestly.
"We didn't live anywhere near a big city," Swenk said of growing up in Sparta, N.C., a small town in the Appalachians, about 10 miles from the Virginia border. "In the mountains, playing music is a way to get together and be social."
The terrain also inspired a deep affinity for nature.
"There's a lot of mountain and river imagery in our lyrics," Swenk said. "Growing up in Appalachia, you're really in tune with the environment. When you turn 16 and can drive, everybody would meet by the river to just hang out and play."
Those teenage jam sessions featured everything from North Carolina bluegrass to the music of the South's favorite sons, the Allman Brothers. It's a repertoire that informed the band's inventive mash-up of musical genres.
"We really think we're on to something good," Swenk said. "Somehow we've been able to mix bluegrass and Southern rock and make it work."
Big Daddy Love, which plays The Jewish Mother Backstage in Norfolk on Saturday, first made waves at FloydFest, an annual music festival held near Floyd, Va., in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 2010, the group beat out approximately 30 other acts to win the festival's new-band showcase. "That was a real game-changer for us," Swenk said. "It put us on a whole new level and created some new opportunities."
One such break was an invitation to open a home-state gig for Willie Nelson last summer.
"Halfway through our set, the crowd was on their feet and dancing, which was an amazing experience," Swenk said.
Now based in Winston-Salem, N.C., Big Daddy Love released its debut album, "To the Mountain," in 2010 and "Let it Grow" the following year. Next up is a live CD/DVD slated for release next month.
"We are really excited about the video," Swenk said. "We got some neat footage with a camera that was attached to the headstock of the banjo and electric guitar so we were able to capture some close-up shots of some furiously fast flying fingers."
Tight musicianship aside, Swenk seems most proud of Big Daddy Love's following, which rivals that of a jam band when it comes to devotion.
"Some of our fans wanted us to make a video, so they hosted a party and raised almost a thousand dollars. That's how we were able to make this DVD. We get to know our fans as good friends and try not to keep some type of wall between us and them. I think they really respond to that."
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