Bob & Sarah Amos
Father Daughter Duo
Written by Dale and Darcy Cahill
Bob Amos made his name in Bluegrass beginning in the late 80s as vocalist, guitarist, frontman, and songwriter for the band Front Range. For over 15 (1988-2004) years Front Range, based in Colorado, played all over the country and Europe and recorded seven albums. These days, Bob lives in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and sings almost exclusively with his daughter, Sarah. While this father and daughter duo has played and sung together since Sarah was just 5 years old, they have recently become a vocal duo whose harmonies can easily be considered “blood harmony singing.” The Bob and Sarah Duo and The Bob and Sarah Band now tour across the Northeast and father and daughter couldn’t be happier.
Bob grew up singing in choirs and choral groups at church and at school. Singing naturally led him to playing the guitar and eventually the banjo. He continued playing both instruments and singing throughout high school and college playing banjo, guitar and singing in local bluegrass bands.
Not planning on becoming a full-time musician, in the late 70’s early 80’s Bob earned himself a Masters in Geology at the Arizona State University, moved to Colorado and got a job as a geologist. “It wasn’t long after arriving in Colorado that he met mandolin player Mike Lantz, and by 1984 they had formed the band Front Range. By 1990 banjoist Ron Lynam and bassist Bob Dick had joined the band, and Bob said goodbye to geology and became a full-time musician.”
Over the course of Front Range’s 15 years together, they recorded 7 albums, toured throughout the United States and Europe and established themselves as an IBMA award winning bluegrass band with great harmonies. Many of the songs they recorded were written by Bob whose youthful history as a choral singer clearly influenced his compositions.
Bob credits his mother, an amateur poet, for learning to enjoy the challenges of songwriting. He recalls, “My mother recognized my connection with and the depth of my passion for music and songwriting. Over the years she encouraged me to listen to my heart and follow my dreams.” Bob has always relied on his mother and his wife Anne for never sparing him the truth about his songs. He says, “I think having people who are close to you giving you honest feedback is key, and I think that’s why I’ve always worked on my lyrics so devotedly.” Although Bob never purposely wrote songs for anyone in particular, a long list of bluegrass acts including Hot Rize, Danny Paisley, Junior Sisk, and Audie Blaylock have recorded his original pieces.
In the early 90s, in the midst of Bob’s stint with Front Range, he and his wife Anne began their family which included two children, Nate and Sarah. Both kids have fond memories of attending bluegrass festivals and seeing their Dad perform on stage. Sarah recalls, “My dad may as well have been one of the Fab Four.” She also couldn’t wait for him to return from his tours. “When we picked him up at the airport, I remember the pure joy I felt seeing him standing there, guitar case in his hand with a head full of stories to tell me and my brother. I feel like I got to see the whole world through his eyes as a little kid.”
When Lantz contracted terminal brain cancer in 2004, Bob says that it felt like the natural time to end Front Range. He just couldn’t imagine the band without him. With Front Range dissolved, Bob and his wife Anne decided it was time to move his family to their property in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, where Bob spent every summer of his youth.
It is there that Bob embarked on a new musical chapter of his life. He established a recording studio at his home and began producing and recording albums all the while playing with a variety of regional musicians. He started the band, Bob Amos and Catamount Crossing, which included a rotating group of musicians and both Nate and Sarah while they were still in high school. Not surprisingly Bob admits that playing music with his children initiated the favorite part of his musical career.
Both children inherited their father’s talents as musicians, vocalists, and songwriters. From an early age, both kids were singing and playing instruments at their grade school and at home. Bob recalls, “They were great with harmonies right from the get-go. We blended beautifully, and it was always fun.” It was when Bob and Anne heard Sarah sing a surprise solo at an elementary school concert that they knew that music was way more than a passing interest. Bob recalls sitting in the auditorium, “When the spotlight came on and out stepped my little Sarah singing all by herself. He says, “My wife Anne and I looked at each other in shock. I think it was at that moment that we realized the true scope of her talent.”
Sarah explains that it was when she moved to Vermont as a young teenager that she began to more fully develop her musical skills. “It was then that I started exploring playing piano as an accompaniment to my voice and started writing some songs. I became the vocalist for my school’s jazz band and performed my first original song in front of my school as a terrified 7th grader.”
Sarah admits that publicly singing alongside her father at the age of 13 wasn’t what every middle schooler would want to do, however she loved it. “I loved singing with my dad, and once we started performing together, it felt like fate locked in. I knew instantly that this was something I was going to do, in some capacity, for the rest of my life.” Not surprisingly, Sarah studied music history and composition when in college. She took full advantage of this experience, exploring a wide range of genres, even composing music for an orchestra, a piano quartet, and a brass Quintet. Upon returning to Vermont after college Sarah naturally resumed playing music with her dad and officially joined Catamount Crossing.
As for many of us, COVID played a major role in shaping the next chapter of Sarah and Bob’s musical collaboration. Catamount Crossing drew to a natural conclusion with the quarantine giving Sarah and her dad more time to sing together as a duo. Sarah explains, “My Dad and I, being family and next-door neighbors, could still see each other and make music together — something I was incredibly thankful for. Our current duo was a sensible, and joyful, next step we took together.”
While together, Sarah and her father have recorded three bluegrass CDs. Since starting the Bob and Sarah duo, the two have recorded the album Ever Onward. Their duo includes genres that have influenced both musicians including folk, bluegrass, blues, and Celtic. The album reached #1 on the Folk DJ national chart and their song “Hills That I Call Home” reached #1 on the Folk Alliance International chart.
Now touring together as a duo and as a band, Bob says that singing harmonies with Sarah is almost magical. They easily collaborate on vocal arrangements. Bob explains, “A lot of it is just kind of organic. We innately know what the other is going to do in terms of dynamics and phrasing. Good music always requires hard work, but there are times when it feels really second nature, or natural, and that’s what it’s like for us.”
Bob describes them as equal partners, each involved in choosing original material and arranging traditional tunes to suit them. They have also returned to some of Bob’s early originals for Front Range. On their most recent album Ever Onward, they rearranged one of Bob’s older songs, “The Hills That I Call Home.” The song ended up going to #1 on the Folk Alliance International airplay chart. A nice surprise for them both.
For now, the two mostly tour regionally, for concerts and festivals such as the Jenny Brook Bluegrass Festival in Vermont and the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival in New Jersey. But Sarah’s full-time job as the Director of Operation for Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, keeps her close to home. Catamount Arts includes producing a live concert series, providing arts education programs, setting up gallery exhibits, and much more. Sarah says that her work as a singer helps her with everything she does at Catamount Arts. Attending hundreds of festivals to hear her dad perform has also been a huge benefit. She has seen the carefully orchestrated chaos of a musical event from backstage, a perspective that helps her with the at times overwhelming logistical details that come along with hosting live events. As a performer herself, Sarah is keenly aware of the importance of making sure the artists who perform at Catamount Arts are treated well and as she says, “have a positive and empowering experience.”
Sarah, Bob, and Sarah’s brother Nate, who now tours and records with his Americana/Experimental rock bands This is Lorelei and Water From Your Eyes, are all professional musicians. When life permits them to all get together in Vermont, they still sing together and share their newest tunes. All of them have lifelong experience as singers, songwriters, and musicians and a deep heartfelt connection to music of all genres. We hope to see them again soon at a concert or festival and look forward to their future collaborations.
