Border Radio captures 1920s band sound

FALLBROOK — Oklahoma-born Kelly McCune was drawn to opera by the overheated stories of death and tragedy, the exquisite beauty of the arias and the possibility that, as a classically trained singer, she would escape being stamped an “Okie.” “I was always a little sensitive about being called a hick so I kind of ran from that ‘Hee Haw’ country music,” she said. It wasn’t long, however, before she stumbled across a band called the Over the Hill Gang in Adair, OK, and realized opera didn’t own the dramatic storyline market. Soon, she began making unexpected connections between the grand arias she sang in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” and her pre-existing fondness for melodic folk-country artists like Doc Watson and Nanci Griffith.

Now the group consists of Kelly on vocals, Mike Stromberg on guitar and dobro, Robert Staron on standup bass and Luke Halpin on mandolin and fiddle. They focus on capturing the string-band sound of the 1920s and ’30s, an “almost archetypal American sound,” says McCune. “We don’t fit into any genre and we break everybody’s rules a little bit.”

Border Radio plays in Fallbrook April 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hilltop Center, located at 331 East Elder. Tickets are sold at Major Market and the door. Call (760) 723-7255 for information.