For more than four years, The Kay Brothers' fans have faced a serious question: Where can I listen to your music?
After years of performances, growth and development, the regional Missouri folk band now has an answer with its self-titled debut album, "The Kay Brothers: Old Time Missouri Stompgrass," recorded and produced by long-time friend Wil Reeves at Centro Cellar Studio.
The group also is releasing its first music video, produced by Bussen Productions, Friday.
The album will officially drop at a release party Feb. 3 at Rose Music Hall in Columbia. It is composed of three original songs and six traditional old-time tunes, which will be available online through CD Baby, iTunes and Spotify.
Pat and Bryan Kay formed The Kay Brothers as a side project, but the family band has become their primary focus. The group adds driving rhythms to old-time fiddle music, a combination the Kays refer to as "stompgrass."
Frontman Pat Kay said their goal is to achieve a tried and true Missouri sound, striving to capture a spirit that best represents their home state. The state flag - a symbol of valor and purity - can be seen regularly as a backdrop at The Kay Brothers' performances.
The album's artist lineup includes Pat on vocals, guitar, bass drum and harmonica, among many other instruments; Bryan on backing vocals and stand bass; Jake Allen on percussion; Molly Healey on fiddle and cello; and Roger Netherton on fiddle.
Pat said the band began recording a bluegrass album about four years ago, but they have come a long way since then. The brothers started recording with Mike Schembre on fiddle and Lauren Douglass on washboard. Schembre, a hard and fast player, left to join the Arkansas country band Mountain Sprout. Douglass also moved to Arkansas the same year.
Healey, who formerly played with Pat in the Hatrick, later took up the fiddle role for the brothers. Pat said she permanently changed the band's sound.
"It became much more melodic and much less of a knucklehead-sounding kind of bluegrass," he said. "It was really nice. She brought really strong vocal harmony into the fold, and the type of music we play is driven so fiercely by the fiddle that we couldn't go back and take Mikey out of the recordings and insert Molly into it. We had to start over again, so that's what we did."
Shortly after, Netherton began to fill in on shows Healey could not travel to due to scheduling conflicts.
"We needed another fiddle player who was local," Pat said. "We were playing a show and something came up and Molly had to cancel at the last minute, so we had to play a set of fiddle songs without a fiddle player."
Someone suggested Netherton, a young yet seasoned old-time fiddler, sit in on the performance.
"I had no idea what old-time meant," Pat said. "This was something that started a chain of events that really affected our sound and caused us to sort of take a step back and start over again.
"I learned that the kind of (fiddle melody-driven) sound that I was really after was actually old-time. It wasn't bluegrass. It never really was bluegrass which is all about that lead vocal line and flashy solos in between. It became a matter of arrangement and dynamics and brought to bare all these opportunities for audience engagement."
Jake Allen, an old friend and former Hipnecks bandmate, joined to round out the mix on percussion. Pat and Bryan said Allen added a warm, active personality to the group's stage presence, complete with a perpetual smile, high leg kicks and extra egg shakers for children in the audience.
"It all really came full circle when Roger joined and Jake came back into the fold," Pat said.
With Healey and Netherton on board to collaborate, the brothers knew this was the lineup that truly brought together the genuine Missouri sound. Ultimately, Pat said the stop-and-go recording process made for a stronger album with a more developed sound. Healey and Netherton add a level of intricacy and melodic beauty that would not have been possible when the group first formed as a bluegrass band, such as a fiery fiddle dual on their rendition of the "Shady Grove" standard.
"I'm acutely aware that this might be the last thing I ever record," Pat said. "Then again, we may record 10 more (albums). I just wanted to make sure this was something that was done right the first time."