The Art of the Sideman
Bluegrass fans are always impressed by the musicians who can play blistering fast solos with accuracy, clarity and tone. This skill is certainly impressive and a guy like mandolin player Josh Rilko knows how to do it. However, the thing that impresses me the most about Josh’s mandolin playing is his ability to play solos and rhythm accompaniment that tastefully support the song, the other instrumentalists and the singer. He knows how support the overall sound of the band in a way that elevates any song’s presentation. Looking at the staggering success of the lead singers who he has supported over the past decade—Lindsay Lou and Sierra Ferrell—I’d say that Josh’s contributions in support of those artists have been substantial and he is an integral part of their sound. Like any great sideman, he may not draw as much attention as the lead singer, but he is a vital part of their music in his role as an instrumentalist, rhythm accompanist and harmony singer.
Background
Raised in Saginaw, Michigan, Josh did not start out his musical life as a bluegrass musician. His father played the guitar and enjoyed playing songs by bands and artists like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Neil Young and Jim Croce. When Josh picked up the guitar in the fifth grade, he was drawn towards alt and punk rock and the reggae of Bob Marley. His father taught him a bit on the guitar, but he also picked up guitar skills from instructional books and DVDs.
Josh had learned enough on the guitar by his early high school years to be involved in a number of short-lived bands. Later, while still in high school, he helped start a local eight-piece Ska band and stayed with them for three years. It was during his high school years that Josh was first exposed to bluegrass. He explained that he attended a folk song circle with his father and a local bluegrass band, the Doo-Dads, showed up. Josh was impressed by how the guys in that band were able to play along with any song that was called in the song circle. He said that another factor that contributed to his interest in bluegrass was hearing the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which was popular at the time.
Josh recalled that the Doo-Dads told him about a bluegrass jam just outside of Flint, Michigan. He started attending the jam, first playing some bass and then picking up the mandolin. When Josh entered college at Michigan State in Lansing, to study elementary education, he was surprised to hear kids in the dorm rooms listening to the Yonder Mountain String Band. This inspired him to seek out other bluegrass jams and festivals in around the Lansing, Michigan area.
The Flatbellys and Lindsay Lou
Seeking out other students who played bluegrass music, Josh started a band, in 2008, with two of his fellow students, plus a guitar player from Kalamazoo. They called themselves The Flatbellys. The original members of the band were Joshua Rilko (mandolin), Spencer Cain (bass), Jesse Myers (guitar), and Josh Brand (banjo). They were known for playing at college festivals and local venues like Dagwood’s Tavern. The band played predominantly traditional bluegrass. In 2009, The Flatbellys recorded an album titled Get ‘Round.
At an open mic night, Josh met another Michigan State student named Lindsay Lou Petroff, who later admitted to becoming a “band groupie” after meeting Josh. In 2009, Brand and Myers left the band and Lindsay Lou joined. The band then began performing as Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys. In an interview with the Bluegrass Situation in 2018, Lindsay Lou said, “What happened was, the Flatbellys was this cool, traditional bluegrass band of young college kids that I met and ended up marrying one of them.” The one she married (in 2011) was Josh Rilko.
After Lindsay joined the band, the sound moved from traditional bluegrass to a broader Americana set list. From 2012 to 2020 the band recorded, toured and made a big name for themselves. Band members changed periodically, Josh and Lindsay being the two mainstays. Josh recalls, “We went to the Folk Alliance conference in 2012 and came away with a booking agent. We started touring a ton, playing a lot of festivals.” The band released three highly acclaimed albums and toured extensively in the United States. They also made trips to tour in Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom.
In 2015, Lindsay and Josh moved from Michigan to Nashville. Sometime after they got settled there, another musician that they knew from Michigan was also looking to move to Nashville and asked them about places to live in the music city. As luck would have it, the place right across the street from where Lindsay and Josh were living was available and so Billy Stings became their across the street neighbor. Then Molly Tuttle moved into Billy’s house. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at those neighborhood jams! Josh recalls, “We met Billy after he moved to Traverse City. We would run into him at some shows and festivals and we’d have jams in Billy’s basement.”
Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys split up around the same time as Lindsay and Josh decided to call it quits on their marriage in the fall of 2020. During the pandemic down time, Josh recorded an interesting solo album. It was interesting because one “side,” titled Lost Soul, was bluegrass material while the other “side,” titled Rock and Roll, drew on Josh’s rock background. The artists who accompanied Josh on the bluegrass section of the record were Jed Clark (guitar), George Guthrie (banjo), Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle) and Geoff Sanders (bass). Billy Strings also played the guitar on one cut. These tracks were recorded by bluegrass flatpicker Jake Stargel at his studio.
Sierra Ferrell
In addition to working on his solo album, Josh also spent time during the pandemic slow-down performing at Jane’s Hideaway in Nashville. He said, “I was playing there about five days a week in the house band, or with my own band or playing in duos at lunch. Then, in March of 2021, Josh got a call from Sierra Ferrell.
About two to three years after Josh and Lindsay Lou moved to Nashville, they moved from being neighbors with Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle to a new home that was about a block away from where Sierra Ferrell was living. Josh got to know Sierra and when she was looking to put a band together to go on the road after the pandemic, she turned to Josh. Josh remembers, “She called at about eight in the morning and said, ‘Do you want to join a band?’ I went over to her house later and said, ‘Sure, I’ll join, why not?’”
Sierra Ferrell had been set for a big push in her career by releasing her first Rounder record and going on the road just before the pandemic (she signed with Rounder in 2019). Of course, the pandemic pumped the brakes on that effort. However, by the summer of 2021 that first Rounder recording came out and she went on tour to promote it. Compared to the crowds she draws today, in 2025, things started a bit slow. Josh said, “Our first show was at Phat Bites and there was about 20 people there.” The band then performed 90 shows in five months and they were quickly selling out 600 seat venues. Josh said, “When we started we had four people in a van. I was the road manager and the fiddler player sold merch. Now we have 17 people on the road with us.”
From humble beginnings, Sierra’s fame blossomed and the crowd size at the shows continue to grow. In 2025 Sierra won four Grammy awards following the 2024 release of her album Trail of Flowers. Today, in addition to playing mandolin in the band, Josh also plays acoustic guitar, octave mandolin and banjo.
In addition to performing with Sierra Ferrell, Josh and the other guys in the band—Geoff Saunders and Oliver Craven—have put together a band that they call the Sentimental Gentlemen. They have recorded five or six songs—both original and traditional—and plan to do some mini-tours. The songs will be released as singles and they will possibly record more and release a full album. Additionally, Josh also performs some “pop up stuff,” like a recent gig with bass player Shelby Means.
Playing the Mandolin
When Josh was in college and decided that he wanted to learn how to play the mandolin, he said that he bought every mandolin instructional book and DVD that he could find. He particularly remembers working with a Butch Baldessari DVD and the Bill Monroe 16 Gems tab book that was published by Hal Leonard. He also remembers working with material that was available from Adam Steffey and Sierra Hull.
After learning solos from instructional material, he worked to synthesize and combine the various approaches to come up with something that was all his own. He said, “I am a melody-oriented player. I try to play the melody as beautifully as possible with some embellishments. I try to play the song and be tasteful.”
Having started his career playing in a fairly traditional bluegrass band, he had to learn how to adapt to the more folk and Americana songs that Lindsay Lou brought to the Flatbellys and the Honky Tonk style that Sierra Ferrell brings to the stage. He said, “I’ve had to change to fit the music we are performing. I try to focus on a strong rhythmic drive because we are now playing to a lot of people in large venues. I’m letting the notes ring more than I would with a standard bluegrass chop and I’m playing more chord inversions and fills. I’ve also developed more of a blues groove. I’ve had to learn to fill in the space without getting in the way of the drums. I often use low-string double-stops for rhythmic drive and movement in the chords.”
There are a lot of mandolin players in the bluegrass world who have become very skilled at taking hot solos. It is not an easy thing to accomplish, but after working with instructors or instructional material for a number of years, it is attainable for people who are willing to work hard and put in the hours. However, I think what someone like Josh Rilko—a very talented mandolin player, musician and sideman—accomplish is a bit more elusive, harder to teach and not accessible from books or videos. Knowing how to listen to the overall band sound and provide exactly what is needed in each moment so that you improve that sound requires the development of keen musical intuition and a command of the instrument that goes beyond technical ability and knowledge.
Josh Rilko’s mandolin playing reminds me of Ringo Star’s drumming. Ringo was not a flashy drummer and so some assume that he was not as technically proficient as other rock drummers. However, Paul McCartney has stated that Ringo was the best drummer that he ever performed with because he had the ability to understand what the song needed, had a particular talent for knowing when not to drum and that he perfectly suited the Beatles music. I would guess that musicians who have performed with Josh Rilko would say that same about his mandolin playing. Search YouTube and watch Josh perform with Lindsay Lou or Sierra Ferrell and take a listen.
