The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a story last week about Czech bluegrass band Druha Trava, who are touring in the US and Canada through the rest of September.

The Gazette’s Nate Guidry interviewed Robert Krestan, who founded the group in 1991 about how he came to become interested in bluegrass living in the Czech Republic. Krestan talks about the difficulty in studying the music during the 1970s when it first caught his attention, as his homeland was then under Soviet domination.

“It was difficult early on because bluegrass was considered subversive,” said Krestan. “It was an American music, and everything American was considered subversive. We tried to get tapes and recordings of American bluegrass music, but it was extremely difficult.”

You can read the full story on the Post-Gazette’s web site, and find Druha Trava’s North American tour schedule on the band’s site.