Local group Snowbound and Senile jams and bonds over crazy bluegrass
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IDAHO FALLS — It’s a chilly evening downtown, and the shops are all closed. But seeping through a crack in the door at MarCellar’s Vintage Wines and Brews in Idaho Falls comes the twangs of a banjo, bright strums and hums of mandolins and fiddles and the deep bellowing of a cello.
This harmony comes from none other than Snowbound and Senile, a bluegrass band that has jammed together in Idaho Falls since the late 1970s or early 80s.
“It’s basically an amalgam of people that come and just want to play some tunes,” said band member John Martinell. “… It wasn’t anything more than that.”
The group has had many members over the years and has gone by many names, but it started with Martinell and Dave Nigg. They began in the country western genre. Martinell went to college with the owner of MarCellar’s, so they practiced there when the shop was closed.
“Years ago, we were called MarCellar’s Folk and Country Fellers — the MCFCF’ers,” Martinell said. “The MCFCF’ers have changed groups over the years many times.”
The group currently has Nigg on banjo, Martinell on guitar, Bradford Huntsman on mandolin, Josh Smith on cello, Casey Braastad on fiddle, Dave Sealander on accordion, and Jason Peters on fiddle/mandolin.
“Sometimes it’s three of us playing, sometimes it’s just the fiddlers, so all sorts of different groups,” Huntsman said.
The group members’ day jobs vary. Martinell is retired. Nigg has a background in biophysics and ski patrol. Huntsman works from home for a software company. Braastad and Peters teach music professionally. Smith teaches middle school. Sealander plays accordion all over the world, and the band said he knows every song ever written.
The band members’ musical backgrounds vary as well. Some have done it their whole lives. Smith has only been playing for about 5 years. And they say they’re always willing to welcome new members.
Their latest name, Snowbound and Senile, was Nigg’s brainchild. He came up with the name while driving for ski patrol one day.
“It just occurred to me if I went off that road at 6 in the morning, I’d be snowbound and senile until the plow could come,” Nigg said.
The group liked it, so it stuck. Then Huntsman wrote a song entitled “Snowbound and Senile.”
Snowbound and Senile play both cover songs and originals. The group tries to be democratic in what they play, so a member brings a song and they all learn it together. Their cover songs aren’t always bluegrass originally, one example being “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry.
For the group’s original songs, Huntsman said he mostly writes lyrics. Braastad and Peters often write the instrumental parts.
“The best times I write songs (are) if I’m on a long drive or something and I just have nothing to do,” Huntsman said. “I just turn off the radio and try to come up with lyrics, and I’ll just record that.”
“I’ll just walk around my living room noodling on my fiddle,” Braastad said. “I figure if I can remember how that noodle goes the next day, it’s probably okay.”
“I always have music going through my head,” Peters said. “I constantly have something stuck in my head. And every now and then, I’ll pay attention while it’s stuck in my head and I realize that it’s not like anything that I’ve heard.”
“If I like it, I write it down,” Peters said.
Four of the band’s members also play in other groups, such as the Idaho Rovers and a string quartet. Huntsman is a solo act, and his music is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Facebook.
“If you know where to look, you can find these guys anywhere from Lava Hot Springs to Sun Valley to Maverick Mountain,” Martinell said.
The group currently doesn’t plan to get professional recordings of their songs, so aside from a few simple recordings online, the only way to hear them is live. They usually play a show about every couple of months.
Snowbound and Senile will be playing live at the upcoming Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour from Jan. 22 to Jan. 24 at the Colonial Theater. They play for 30 minutes before the show. In February, they will also be playing at Harriman State Park for an annual Moonlight Serenade.
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