'Hold on' — Dirty Kitchen's cookin' at Fort Hill in Canandaigua

Writing the song took Frank Solivan about 15 minutes before a rehearsal with his bluegrass band Dirty Kitchen. Living the song, growing into it, took some years of living — a hard personal year followed by a couple hard years for everyone. a hard personal year followed by a couple hard years for everyone.

"Hold On” is a song of withstanding and surmounting what life may throw at you: “We can lean on each other and brave the road ahead/We can fill each other all the way up if we hold on to what we have.” The sentiment is driven by the up-tempo sound of guitar, mandolin, bass and banjo coming together in a jubilant union. It’s the title track of Dirty Kitchen’s 2022 album release that carries a similar theme of perseverance even in the slower numbers or sadder tracks.

The four-piece band’s “Hold On” tour will bring them to the Fort Hill Performing Arts Center at 20 Fort Hill Ave. in Canandaigua on Saturday, Nov. 5, for a 7:30 p.m. concert. Tickets ($25 orchestra, $35 mezzanine) are available at fhpac.com. The concert is sponsored in part by Bristol Mountain Winter Resort in South Bristol.

“Basically, 2019 was kind of the worst year of my life,” Solivan said, noting it was a time of trying to “figure things out in my personal life.” Just in time for 2020, and the global curveball that year threw.

“The next thing you know – you know,” he said.

The coronavirus pandemic laid everyone low, and working, touring musicians were particularly at loose ends. “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘what am I going to do?’ Not just me, but everyone in the music industry, trying to figure out how to make things happen.” But the enforced downtime had an upside: “It let me have some time in my own brain rather than being on the road,” he said.

The reflections led to the songs that make up “Hold On,” mostly written or co-written by Solivan, plus covers from New Grass Revival, Buzz Busby and 1970s pop band Orleans. “The idea at least for me was to have something a little more hopeful, I guess – that's kind of what I kept telling myself. … We’re still going to come together. We’re still going to have community. We’re still going to lean on each other.”

The band’s singer and mandolinist, Solivan’s never known a life not surrounded by music — his father played multiple instruments; various aunts, uncles, and grandparents all played as well. There was his first band as a teenager (Generation Gap, which once opened for Dr. Ralph Stanley); there was his stint in the University of Alaska’s Symphony Orchestra (first chair violin); there was his time playing country and bluegrass in the U.S. Navy service band Country Current. And then there was Dirty Kitchen, with five studio albums out since 2010, plus multiple Grammy nominations and assorted International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) nominations and awards. When interviewed last week, Solivan had just gotten word that the “Hold On” album was in the first round of bluegrass-album Grammy nominations.

Dirty Kitchen is generally described as “progressive bluegrass” (sometimes “newgrass”), a somewhat nebulous classification that essentially means they color outside the lines of the traditional, archetypical bluegrass sound established by the likes of Bill Monroe or the Stanley Brothers while still paying homage to it. Solivan sings in a lower register than the “high lonesome sound” that’s often identified with bluegrass singers, and his musical influences range widely — traditional bluegrass; other “newgrass” bands; country artists like Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Roy Clark; rock and roll. (A 2019 release included a cover of jazzy rockers Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”) Bandmates Mike Munford (banjo), Chris Luquette (guitar) and Jeremy Middleton (bass) all bring various influences and experiences, from country to jazz to rock to Brazilian stylings, into the mix. Solivan said they’ll hear people say they don’t really like bluegrass but they like Dirty Kitchen.

“I like to say we are like a gateway band,” he said.

So why “Dirty Kitchen?” Partly, it’s a reference to his love for cooking — “I’m neck deep in the culinary arts most of the time” — picked up from a restaurateur mother and a Filipino grandfather from whom he’s picked up a few recipes. Solivan has his own line of hot sauce and spice mix — part of an eclectic batch of ventures that also includes high-end plectrums (picks for stringed instruments) and leather straps and belts.

And besides, it catches people’s attention: “You’re asking the question, that’s why.”

Rounding out November at Fort Hill Performing Arts Center: Billy Joel tribute band The Regular Crowd at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 and Fleetwood Mac tribute The Seven Wonders at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19.

This article originally appeared on MPNnow: Dirty Kitchen brings 'Hold On' tour to Fort Hill in Canandaigua NY