Road Warriors

The Black Lillies' music always talks about traveling. And that's something frontman Cruz Contreras knows well. He spends 200 days a year on the road with the band, and he's previously toured the country with several other acts, including Robinella and the CCstringband. Some of that time on the road was even more literal: He worked as truck driver for a stone company after his divorce from Robinella Bailey and the end of the band the two shared.

But even if all that traveling finds its way into The Black Lillies' sound, Contreras says the music certainly has a sense of place.

"Music is very tied to the location it's performed in," says Contreras by phone while -- fittingly -- on the road between gigs. The band's travels continue for much of the year and will on Wednesday include a stop at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville. Fellow Americana act Smokey & The Mirror will serve as opening act.

In a word, that place for The Black Lillies is Tennessee, where Contreras started his first string band with his brother, the place he and the band members call home. But he notes the diversity in the sounds found in that state. Nashville has the pop country market cornered. The eastern parts of the state catch the folk and bluegrass traditions of the Appalachians. Contreras claims nearby Muscle Shoals, Ala., and its deep soul music traditions as close enough to the border to be a product of Tennessee. And certainly not least of the state's music products are the blues and early country sounds born in Memphis.

The Black Lillies fall somewhere in between many of those forms, close enough to country music to occasionally appear on CMT Edge but also containing considerable bluegrass and traditional elements. The Wall Street Journal said the band has "rootsy flair, mixing folk, honky-tonk country and gospel into a winsome hybrid traditional enough to appeal to an Opry crowd and expansive enough to ensnare a broader audience."

The Black Lillies' live appearances reflect that diversity, too. The band has played at one Tennessee tradition, the proudly eclectic mega-festival Bonnaroo, and another more venerable one, the Grand Ole Opry, where the musicians have appeared more than 30 times.

In the vein of traditional country, the songs Contreras writes are often story songs, such as "Smokestack Lady," about a man on a mission to see his woman, or "Goodbye Charlie," about a service member going away to war. Among the members of The Black Lillies, there are many instruments in the repertoire, from mandolin to guitar to banjo to pedal steel. Sometimes they'll forget to change instruments between songs and learn to play an old song a new way on the fly. Sometimes that's even a good idea.

The live test always never lies, and if it works, "you know, the band knows, and the audience knows," Contreras says.

The group's "Runaway Freeway Blues" was released about 18 months ago, and the band is already at work on new material. Several of those new songs will receive the live test during Wednesday night's show.

And when the band does record the follow-up album, its members will do something they rarely do -- take a break from the road, at least for a few days.

It's far less likely they'll take a break from sounding like Tennessee.