Since its formation in the fall of 2006, Junior League Band has graced numerous stages throughout the Metro area – and around the country – in an effort to introduce a new legion of fans to its unique blend of rock- and bluegrass-inspired music. Despite numerous changes in personnel, the band has produced three records in less than 18 months, solidifying their sound and making an indelible mark on the D.C. music landscape.

The two constants throughout Junior League Band’s journey – Lissy Rosemont (vocals, banjo) and Eli Cohn (guitar, dobro) – are currently (and most permanently) joined by Nick Weitzel on the bass guitar, Will Waikart on drums and Sadie Dingfelder on the violin. With a steady rotation of guest musicians, one would think that cohesion on stage would be a constant struggle. Go and see them live, however, and you’ll realize that this certainly isn’t the case. Filling their collection is a mix of fresh, vibrant, foot-tapping tunes, giving Junior League Band little trouble in gaining the attention of in-the-know concertgoers both in the District and beyond.

While their existence has been relatively short, the D.C.-based ensemble has been a consistent presence at the Rock and Roll Hotel, the Black Cat and IOTA Club and Café in Arlington. The band co-headlines its first gig at the 9:30 Club on Friday – an early show, with doors at 6 p.m. DCist sat down with Lissy, Eli and Sadie to get the low-down on the JLB.

Junior League Band has existed for just about 2 years, but already you’ve played on both coasts and at numerous festivals. Did you already have established connections throughout the country? How do you go about booking a gig like Milwaukee’s Summerfest?

Eli: We have some connections – we’re all from different places. I’m from Milwaukee, so I did have that particular connection. You just work at it. Lissy works at it harder than all of us, but we all work at it. Just meeting people, being sociable, being nice to people and remembering who owes you favors… but you gotta have a product that you can sell to some extent. You have to convince people to think you’re really good. We’ve made a lot more friends as we’ve been traveling as well.

Lissy: I did a lot of research. I would see who was playing in what cities. I would see where they were playing, and if they were playing in Seattle, I’d notice where else they were playing in the Northwest. I just kinda take notes of all of that. MySpace makes a lot of that really easy, just to make connections. We’ve got a group organization of networking. Other band members have different strengths – the three of us, we’re really good at socializing and networking and following up. That kind of stuff just really, in the end, has worked out helping us get good suggestions for booking. Maintaining friends with other bands and keeping that up, even if there’s no end in sight, it ends up kinda coming around.

Your MySpace page lists your genre as “roots music / rock / acoustic” – how do you define “roots music,” and is there a reason you didn’t include bluegrass?

Lissy: OK, well bluegrass pickers are really, really talented. We’re working on being really really talented, and my bandmates are exceptional players. However, we are not bluegrass players and it’s important to distinguish that. If you were to talk to a bluegrass player like Doc Watson or David Holt or any of our heroes, I think we’re all real reluctant to associate ourselves with them because that’s just a big honor and we’re not there yet. I think folks see a banjo or a fiddle and they think “bluegrass” right away, but if they went down south, they’d know what we do is not bluegrass, it just kind of appears that way because there aren’t a whole bunch of banjoes in a lot of rock bands.

Eli: I would say it’s tough because people know different things about what constitutes bluegrass or what constitutes particular genres. Let’s just say that if you go south and you bill yourself as a bluegrass band and you have an electric bass that night or a full drum kit – that’s not bluegrass. Bluegrass bands don’t have full drum kits, so we’re a little weary of that. On the other hand, though, I do waste a lot of time being like “well we’re kind of a roots rock mix of southern traditional and old-time styles with rock fusion, funk abstract whatever,” and then I put it on for family friends and they’re like “oh yeah, that’s bluegrass.”

Lissy: But you go out to Fiddler’s Grove, and people are like “that rock y’all are playing.”

Eli: Right. You’re kinda damned if you do and damned if you don’t. But that’s what I love about the band.

Sadie: When people ask me what our music sounds like, I just say “well, our lead singer’s really hot and she plays banjo,” and people like that.

What’s the response been like in D.C.? Do you find that you tend to see the same people at shows, or do think you gain a few new fans with each outing?

Sadie: I’ve been really impressed that Junior League Band has a following. I think that we have a good balance of playing often in D.C., but not too often. People even know some of the songs. At Summerfest, I saw some people mouthing along to the songs, and I just assumed that they were relatives of someone, but they were not. Obviously, these people had gotten on MySpace and learned some of the songs, which was amazing.

Eli: We do have some following – some of it is earned, some of it is not earned. Some of it’s family, so they have no choice. I’m always amazed at crowds of people coming out to see us that I’ve never seen before. Also, some people think that I’m a Jonas Brother, and that’s why they come to shows.

Lissy: Eli’s frequently mistaken for the Washington Jonas Brother.

JLB is playing your first show at the 9:30 Club on Friday night – do you have anything special planned?

Lissy: We’re doing one of my dad’s own blues tunes – he didn’t write it, but the way he arranged it – we’re going to do it Junior League style. So bringing that to the 9:30 Club is wonderful for me. We’ve never played it in D.C. or the Metro area before, so I’m really excited about that.

Eli: It’s really fun, because on the road we’ll play different venues and a lot of crowds have never seen us before. And when you come back to D.C., you gotta mix it up. It’s a great spot to try new stuff – I’m looking forward to it. We have some tricks up our sleeve, I think. Or I do.

What’s the most interesting venue you’ve played?

Sadie: We played an intermission at a burlesque show. It was an amazing burlesque show – there was one lady who did a whole Ghostbusters thing and her pasties were two little Ghostbusters logos… and then Eli actually got invited onto the stage to guest star. If this guitar thing doesn’t work out, Eli has a future in burlesque.

Eli: Let’s just say I got my shirt torn off of me in front of my mom. And my sister.

Lissy: The Housing Works bookstore in New York – taking care of New Yorkers with HIV and AIDS – that was a pretty phenomenal environment, just to be playing a show that’s right in the middle of this non-profit context. I thought the FloydFest stage that we played on this past summer was pretty amazing. It was really cool because the stage was literally on top of a mountain. Driving on these curving, windy roads in Southern Virginia and suddenly on top of the mountain you can see this big wooden pavilion off in the distance. And just about 20 hours later, there we were on the stage, looking out and you could see all the mountains. That was pretty badass.

Is there anywhere in D.C. that you haven’t played but want to?

Sadie: I wanna do the [Verizon] Center with the pyrotechnics and 30 back-up dancers and back-up fiddle players and they can all dance around me, Lord of the Dance style.

Lissy: I saw Grizzly Bear at the 6th and I Historic Synagogue. That was really great – that was a really cool venue to have a show at. I think we’d have to do a really mellow set, but that’s another venue… I haven’t been to too many shows there, but that would be cool.

Eli: It’s not in D.C., but the State Theatre.

In an ideal world, you’d headline every gig – but if you could open for any current band or artist, who would it be?

Lissy: I’m killin’ to open for Levon Helm – he was the lead singer and drummer of The Band. Dude’s got soul for a little Southern white man who’s 70 years old.

Sadie: I wanna open for the Avett Brothers. They also have a banjo, so we’re thematically consistent. And they seem to have a really rowdy, enthusiastic and happy crowd, and I think that they’ll dance for any reason, so that’d be a great crowd.

Eli: There’s this band I saw over the summer that I’ve gotten really into called Crooked Still. They’re an awesome band. They’re bluegrass players, but they use a cello instead of a guitar and it’s just really beautiful and haunting. Or the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Or Prince.

With Lissy based in Atlanta, how do you guys handle the creative process? Do you exchange tracks via e-mail or anything like that, or do you reserve the songwriting process for when you’re all in the same room?

Lissy: I’ve written most of the songs so far and Eli has recently collaborated on the original steps of songwriting. Most songwriters have the beginning melodies and the beginning lyrics and then the whole band comes in and helps arrange the rest of the tune. I’ll send these wild tracks, but I don’t know if they ever listen to them until I hound them. I don’t think they take me seriously from afar, but right before I get to town, I think everybody does their homework. And then we get together and mess around with arrangements and ideas.

Eli: Sometimes I get voicemails of Lissy just singing. It’s really weird. Kinda creeps me out, but I go with it. We have limited practice time, but on the road, on stage, stuff happens. Especially when we play longer sets – we’re like “huh, drum solo… who would’ve thought?” It’s amazing what can happen on stage. One hour on stage is worth twelve hours in my room practicing by myself, I’d say.

When it comes to collaborating, is there anybody in D.C. that you’d like to join forces with, even if it’s just for a one-night stand?

Lissy: Tom Hnatow of These United States and I as well as Rose (of Vandaveer) – if you can have a ménage-a-trois situation, we’ve already been making that happen at the Federal Reserve. I kinda get my fix at the Federal Reserve – it’s D.C. sort-of music collective. The first Monday of every month at IOTA, a bunch of different bands come together… it’s almost like an open mic between musicians in town, and I just love that camaraderie.

Finally – and this is random, but I’ve always thought about it and want to get a musician’s perspective – when playing an intimate space like the Rock and Roll Hotel, there’s always the potential for a lot of chatter from the bar area. Does stuff like that bother you, or do you just try and block it out?

Eli: What’s really important is being able to engage with at least part of the audience. We had this gig in Chicago – it was this huge space, part of a festival opening party – there were a lot of people just in the background kind of hanging out. But there were these two girls that were really messed up and getting down in front of Sadie the whole night and I was like “wow, they’re getting into it.” If you just have someone like that to project energy that you can connect with, it’s all good.

Lissy: I don’t really notice it, to be honest. We’re just all trying to feed off each other’s energy and have a good performance. I’ve had other folks from other bands – actually, at the Rock and Roll Hotel – say “that was so annoying, I wish people would stop talking.” I actually don’t feel that way. If people are having a good time, they’re having a good time. We played in Nashville and there were signs on the table that were like “shut up – listen to the band.” Obviously, Nashville’s a music town and clearly that’s a way of doing it, but I don’t think any of us are really like that. I think we all like energy – even if it’s kinda loud – to feed off of, rather than dead silence. We’re not a quartet or a symphony… this is supposed to be lively.

Sadie: We’re not a symphony, but at our show at the 9:30 Club on Friday, we’re going to have a trombone player and a harmonica player, which I think is a traditional quartet lineup. Mozart wrote most of his quartets for trombone and harmonica, fiddle and dobro.

Eli: Yeah, and cheese is also a fruit.

Junior League Band is playing an early show at the 9:30 Club on Friday with Ted Garber and Shane Gamble. Tickets are available here for $12.

Photos by Martin Locraft