Blind Owl Band, from left, Eric Munley, James Ford, Arthur Buezo and Christian Cardiello rehearse at the Waterhole on Sunday. The quartet are coming off a three-year hiatus to play two shows at Winter Carnival, and go on a brief three-state tour. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — It’s time to head back “down to the watering hole.” After a three-year hiatus, the Blind Owl Band is reuniting for eight shows, starting with two at the Waterhole during the first weekend of Saranac Lake Winter Carnival early in February.

The Carnival theme this year is “Music Legends” and the band members, who became legends for their hectic, pounding “Freight Train String Music,” are excited to get back on the tracks.

The quartet spent several years in the 2010s touring full-time, playing as many as 175 shows a year in 17 states up and down the East Coast. But they haven’t performed together since September 2021 and the band has been put on pause.

When Christian Cardiello, Arthur Buezo, James Ford and Eric Munley got together for rehearsals earlier this week, they said it didn’t feel like any time has passed.

“When we weren’t playing, it felt like forever. And now that we’re playing again, it just feels like instantly back to normal,” mandolinist Munley said.

Banjo player Ford said it was “close to effortless” getting back together. It’s been the four of them since day one.

“Blind Owl only happens with Blind Owl,” bassist Cardiello said.

They’ve missed it.

“We just want to play music,” Cardiello said.

Guitarist Buezo was getting back to New York from a solo UK tour during the Winter Carnival season. The stars aligned for a reunion.

“Winter Carnival’s always been an important part of our band history,” Munley said.

The first show, on Feb. 1, sold out in 45 minutes. Tickets are still available for the second show at tinyurl.com/5bcmcvu5. From there, the band will hit the road for six shows across Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York, rounding out the tour in Rochester. While Saranac Lake is their home, Rochester is their home market and a place where they’ve build a strong following.

How the band got started can be summed up in three words — “Paul Smith’s College” — usually said twice in a wistful tone.

In 2010, Cardiello saw Buezo and Ford busking on campus and knew he wanted to play with them. When they all met at a party Munley was throwing, they jammed and the band formed from there. Ford and Buezo dropped out of college and Munley and Cardiello stayed in Saranac Lake to make it happen.

Buezo said Ford always had a deep repertoire of old tunes they’d play. They knew each other before they landed in Saranac Lake and had been playing beside one another for a while.

They never planned to be a bluegrass unit.

“It just sort of naturally came about from playing in living rooms and not having a drummer,” Munley said.

They didn’t intend to be a professional band, either. But they were all in their early 20s with the right perspective and the right amount of time to be broke for a while. They could dedicate themselves to the craft.

“We were lucky to be able to put in endless touring when we were young,” Munley said.

In 2011, when Munley was living above China Jade, they decided to go out and see if they could play in a bar. They actually didn’t plan to play the Waterhole. They wanted to wait until they were ready.

But after they got a “no” from one bar, they took their shot at the Waterhole and played a show for four people in the downstairs area.

On their third show there, they learned the New Riders of the Purple Sage were going to play upstairs on the next night. NRPS was actually going to play downstairs that night, but Blind Owl Band was already scheduled to play. The NRPS guys came down to watch them.

Blind Owl Band had three instruments going through one amp, one microphone and were still figuring out their sound system. They remember the “good luck” back pats they got from NRPS.

“Man, if they could have seen us 10 years later,” Munley said.

To him, music is all about connecting with people.

“In a world where people spend more and more time individually existing on their phones and such, music presents this opportunity, that not only the four of us can share in the energy of it, everybody participating and dancing can share in the energy of it,” Munley said.

When they see people freaking out and having fun, it picks them up. It’s a “magical” feeling when everyone in the room all focused on the same bass note at the same time.

Cardiello’s always said that going to Phish shows is like going to see the World Series, but everyone is rooting for the same team and you know they’re going to win. To him, it’s “surreal” to have similar rabid support for Blind Owl Band.

The four have built countless relationships across more than a decade of touring and are looking forward to seeing people they haven’t seen in a couple of years.

They’ve been rehearsing for around 20 hours this week and Ford said they’ve been surprised by how much fun they’re having.

In preparation, they are pulling out every song they love playing from their four-album discography, revisiting their favorite covers and picking up three new songs. The two Winter Carnival shows will have nearly completely different sets.