Della Mae returns to the Scenic City for bluegrass two-fer at The Camp House

It’s a wonder the members of Della Mae remember their home addresses, considering how infrequently they get to spend any time there.

The all-female Americana quintet toured for 214 days of 2015, its fourth consecutive year with more than 200 days on tour. Thanks to the group’s involvement in American Music Abroad – a cultural, ambassadorial offshoot of the U.S. State Department – its performances also included stops in exotic locales such as Guyana, the Marshall Islands and Bangladesh.

These globetrotting dates aren’t much help in terms of blazing future touring routes, guitarist and lead vocalist Celia Woodsmith admits, but they still serve a vital purpose – one that transcends boosting album sales or adding to the band’s social-network following.

“The reason the U.S. State Department sends bands like us around the world to these places is to spread American music and American goodwill,” she says. “We can teach at schools and meet people from different countries and they can meet us. We can start a dialogue between people, not politicians.

“We’ve had some really amazing trips and come back with amazing stories. I’m so happy we can do that.”

Della Mae was founded in 2009 by fiddler Kimber Ludiker, a Washington state native who fell in love with bluegrass while living in Boston. Her dream was an all-female ensemble of musicians who could go pick-to-pick and bow-to-bow with any male bluegrass band.

Long before Della Mae started its jet-setting campaign to share bluegrass with the world, Ludiker’s search knitted together a group of women whose diverse backgrounds give the lie to any notion that bluegrass is a gender-locked or purely Southern pursuit.

Woodsmith is a Vermont native, bassist Zoe Guigueno is from British Columbia and guitarist/banjo player Courtney Hartman is a Coloradan. The only Southerner in Della Mae’s lineup is South Carolina-born mandolinist Jenni Lyn Gardner.

For all its international gallivanting, Della Mae has built a name for itself at home as one of the hottest up-and-comers on the bluegrass scene. The band’s sophomore release, 2013’s “I Built This Heart,” won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.

Despite Della Mae’s notoriety as pickers and grinners, the band’s self-titled record last year folded in enough elements of soul, blues, country, folk and rock that bluegrass no longer strikes Woodsmith as a wholly appropriate label.

“We definitely went from trying for more of a traditional bluegrass sound to more of an Americana sound,” she laughs. “I know that’s kind of a frustrating category because it captures everything, but we’ve expanded our palette a little bit.”

Local fans who have fond memories of Della Mae’s appearance during the rainy opening evening of last year’s 3 Sisters Festival and who want to experience the band’s evolution firsthand can do so tonight, Jan. 14, during a two-bill show at The Camp House with local bluegrass band Slim Pickins.

“I was totally blown away by the crowd [at 3 Sisters],” Woodsmith recalls. “I remember being like, ‘Oh, this is great. This crowd is going to give back the energy we’re putting out.’ It’s a really fun crowd, a really excitable crowd. That makes it great to come back.”

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205.

Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.