The Alternate Routes are the band that helped us to remember “we are how we treat each other, and nothing more.”

“Nothing More” propelled the band into new ears and new heights, having been featured prominently in the 2014 Winter Olympics, on NCIS, and with numerous other organizations. It was followed up with “Somewhere in America,” a poignant and personal conversation about gun violence that earned the band a 2016 Independent Music Award and a visit to the White House.

The Alternate Routes first burst onto the scene in 2005 with their breakthrough album Good and Reckless and True. They released several albums on Vanguard Records and on their own, toured extensively, and relentlessly refined their craft. They have collaborated with such seemingly disparate artists as singer-songwriter Patti Griffin, director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), and guitarist Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket. They’ve performed on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” and have been repeat guests on NPR’s “Mountain Stage.”

Mountain Laurel is the oft told tale of a college cover band turned indie rock group. All four members of the band are Fairfield, CT natives, New York City residents, and alumni of Fordham University. In the fall of 2014 Andrew Pierson, Robert Salandra, and William Corona began playing bars and rooftop parties alike in their beloved Bronx, New York as a cover band called Seabass and the Fellas. After graduating from Fordham, the three friends stuck together to continue playing shows in the New York City metro area, eventually supplementing their sound with the delicate tones of vocalist Emma Salandra. Informed by Phish and Dave Matthews Band shows at the Hartford Meadows, classic rock on FM radio’s 95.9 the Fox, and their parents’ Stevie Wonder and Fleetwood Mac records, Mountain Laurel’s sound transcends the typical indie rock genre to include influences of folk, jazz, rock, pop, and country music. While their streaming numbers are modest, the band takes extreme pride in the grassroots following they have cultivated - they've sold out venues across New England at shows that feel more like family reunions than gatherings of strangers.