Winter is starting to get to me. Yes, intellectually I know spring is technically one month away, but the months of January, February, and March always feel like an eternity to me. So I decided I needed a little slice of summer today. Enter The Petersens. The Petersens are a family bluegrass band from Branson, MO. The band consists of siblings Katie, Ellen, Matt, and Julianne, mom, Karen, and friend, Emmett Franz. There’s just something about a family band you can’t get from any other combination of talented people. The bluegrass community calls the music made by family groups “blood harmony,” and while it is a slightly gruesome-sounding phrase, it also sounds entirely right. Like Haim and The Staves, The Petersons have that extra something… special.

The bluegrass group was the brainchild of family father, Jon. He went to a bluegrass festival and was inspired by so many families bonding over the music. When they got home, he bought his kids instruments and got them started on lessons. As first a pilot, then a doctor in the Air Force, Jon’s family had to move around a lot, but making music together ensured they always had something to bring them closer. It turned the siblings into each other’s best friends, which comes through in their music. Just watching the pride and affection with which the older siblings look at the younger members of the group during their solos is heartwarming.

You can hear more of the summertime-feeling sounds of The Petersens on their website and on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.