Bluegrass music has had its ups and downs in popularity over the years, but for the most part, musicians and fans of the genre know it does not catch much mainstream hype.

That is what makes touring so important for the Firebox Bluegrass Band.

Tyson Tolliver, the band’s banjo player, said the group plays mainly to get their music out there and educate people about the history and traditions of bluegrass.

The Effingham-based band, which also includes Nick Poe on guitar, Bill Sanguinetti on bass, Caleb Gerber on mandolin and Doug McDevitt on fiddle, will be performing at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Historic Five Mile House in Charleston.

Tolliver said a lot of people are not bluegrass fans simply because they have never heard the music before.

“People say that we’re the first bluegrass band they ever heard and they really, really enjoyed it,” he said. “So I think that the more exposure that people get, and if they’re open-minded going into it, people usually tend to really enjoy it.”

Tolliver said bluegrass was popular when it first emerged as a subgenre of country, but it was largely overshadowed when rock ‘n’ roll became popular.

“Bluegrass happened and then rock ‘n’ roll came out and it just kind of took the stage away from bluegrass,” he said. “The folk revival in the ‘50s brought it back, but it’s never been a real mainstream thing.”

Despite the differences in the two genres, Tolliver said he still enjoys classic rock bands like The Beetles and Led Zeppelin.

“I listened to music my whole life,” he said. “I started listening to more rock ‘n’ roll and stuff, but I got switched over to bluegrass (in the) early 2000s.”

The two musicians Tolliver said influenced him were Earl Strugs, a pioneer of bluegrass banjo playing, and Jimmy Martin.

Tolliver said Firebox plays covers of songs and writes some of their own.

Themes in their songs include traditional bluegrass topics like love lost, love found, trains, gospel and tragedies.

Tolliver said there are many “murder ballads” in bluegrass, one of the more famous examples being the song “Banks of Ohio.”

“They’re usually about loving a woman, and then it’s only one-sided love or something, and then the gentleman murders the woman,” he said.

The band formed in 2008 when the group of friends got together in Tolliver’s garage and started practicing.

Having musicians play together who actually get along is just as important as having musicians who are talented, Tolliver said.

“For as much time as we spend together, we get along pretty good,” he said.

Tolliver said the best part of performing is interacting with fans and getting to know the community.

“Whenever you go to see a country band or a big band, you don’t hardly get to see the people unless you have like a backstage pass or something,” he said. “But at most bluegrass shows, as soon as they’re done playing, they come out and they’ll talk to whoever is there until the last person is gone.”

Stephanie Markham can be reached at 581-2812 or samarkham@eiu.edu.