The folk-rock band Parsonsfield is stopping by to perform at the Maintenance Shop on Friday, March 23 at 8 p.m.

The Massachusetts-based quintet is comprised of Chris Freeman (banjo/lead vocals), Max Shakun (guitar), Antonio Alcorn (mandolin), Harrison “Whale” Goodale (bass), Erik Hischmann (drums). All members sing and are known to switch places and trade out instruments during live performances.

The group originally originated in Mansfield, Connecticut where four of the five members attended the University of Connecticut. They were originally a part of the university’s folk music club. Hischmann met the rest of the band in 2013 as a session drummer for their first album “Poor Old Shine” and joined them after recording was finished.

Parsonsfield has been touring for six years and has played plenty of venues and music festivals such as South by Southwest and Mountain Jam Festival, among others, and are scheduled to perform at many more for the rest of the year.

The band also lived in Canada for around six months to write and perform the original soundtrack to “The Heart of Robin Hood,” a theatrical production for which they played eight shows a week in Cambridge, Winnipeg, and Toronto. They also performed a commissioned score at the Freshgrass Film Festival for the silent film, “Nanook of the North.”

Lead singer Chris Freeman describes the tour experience as an adventure that has taught him much.

“We’ve never played in Oklahoma or Texas, or in a lot of different places, so travelling the country and seeing all these different perspectives and cultures is great. We go 500 miles a day and see a few people in a totally different part of the country with different backgrounds and that’s a really interesting part of [touring],” Freeman said.

The band has released four studio albums to date since 2013 under Signature Sounds Recordings. Their latest album came out earlier this month. Called “WE,” Freeman explains that the title of the album does not represent the band, their relationship with the audience or anything really physical, but instead is something to symbolize and contextualize the voices people sometimes hear in their heads.

“It’s called ‘WE’ because [the album] is mostly just about those sorts of conflicting voices that can be in everybody’s head. Those ones that come from confident places that tell you you’re the best and the ones that tell you that you’re nothing. I think everybody has those feelings of insecurity and confidence … Those feelings that are so real and raw,” Freeman said.

Parsonsfield’s music may be labeled as folk-rock, bluegrass or roots. However, the versatility of their songs really suggests the ability of the quintet to be a multi-genre band. Their music, overall, stays true to their grassroots origins but draws on genres like rock, indie, R&B and even pop to keep adding to their ever-maturing sound.

Freeman describes their music to be focused on creating a moment or an emotion rather than on lyrical aspects. He also mentions their music as a way to communicate and to get through harder times.

“Sometimes, those feelings [we create] can be joy and happiness that make you want to dance. Other times, it’s more complex than that, [it] shows a sadness. Everybody’s dealing with something and the more open you are with what you are dealing with, like depression for me, for example, helps you become more honest,” Freeman said.

Additionally, Freeman mentions that he wants their audience to connect with and through their music.

“We try and put the whole depth of the human experience within our songs and hopefully people can find that. Find the joy and compassion and sadness and everything within them. We try to write in a way that the complexities of emotion are all there,” Freeman said.

Freeman talks about the band’s songwriting processes, how they write together and how they have worked together over the length of their career.

“Oftentimes, someone will bring in a skeleton of something they have been working on. A poem, a chorus or a melody for example. Sometimes, [the songs] can be much more complete so we can bring it home and make a demo ourselves, then it’s up to all of us to bring our own thing to it,” Freeman said.

He continues to talk about their dynamic and how they are as a group.

“We all come from different backgrounds so it’s cool that everyone is coming from a different place. This is one of the best jobs we can imagine having. Music is why we’re all friends and why we’re all doing this. It means the world to us to be able to share [our music] with people all around the county,” Freeman said.

Parsonsfield’s future plans include finishing their current tour this weekend, then taking a break and going back home to work on a new album.

“We’re working on recording this ourselves this time. It will be a fun little home recording project in the studio that we built back home in Leverett, Massachusetts and we have around 30 songs that we plan to record. It may end up being multiple albums, we’ll see. Then we will be touring the rest of the summer,” Freeman said.

This will be Parsonsfield’s first time performing in Ames, so they hope for a great crowd and to learn new things about the city.

“We always enjoy going to colleges because they’re always full of energy and people are down for a good time. Hopefully a lot of students come out and we can make it fun for them. We hope to have a fun and positive night, that’s really always the goal,” Freeman said.

Tickets are $8 for ISU students and $10 for the public. They are available for purchase at the M-Shop box office or online via Midwestix.