This week, we're featuring the stark Americana, folk and self-described blues-grass of the Sioux Falls trio The Tinder Box. The Tinder Box came together in 2010 - brothers Chad Konrad and Dominic Osterloh met up with their distant cousin Jon Wallner when all three were at South Dakota State University in Brookings. The band takes its name from a Han Christian Andersen fairy tale about a poor soldier who finds a magical tinderbox that summons three magical dogs to do his bidding.
The band's sound is sometimes compared to the enormously popular United Kingdom band Mumford and Sons, but according to Chad Konrad, The Tinder Box hadn't even heard of Mumford and Sons until they had already played a few shows and recorded some of their own music. Still, the comparison is apt - folk-rock with rarely upbeat lyrics and a driving banjo with a kick bass underneath. They won the battle of the bands at S-D-S-U and went on to the National Battle of the Bands. They didn't win the national competition, but their performance created some good underground buzz. The band has had some attention from online, indie music blogs and magazines and even did a Skype interview with a group in the northern U-K. The Tinder Box performs regularly in southeast South Dakota and southwest Minnesota and the band has released two albums - These Winds and Who's To Till this Land?