Yonder Mountain String Band Albums (10)
'Mountain Tracks, Vol. 5'
Release Date 4/15/2008
Tracks 24
Label Frog Pad
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What The Critics Say
Yonder Mountain String Band have made a practice of releasing at least one live album in their Mountain Tracks series for every studio release, and are now up to five concert collections against four studio sets. The group has managed to come up with different concepts for the live discs, perhaps in an attempt to keep ahead of the tapers who record their shows and trade with others. For Mountain Tracks, Vol. 5, a two-CD set, the bandmembers have taken different tacks for each disc. Disc one is an anthology of previously unreleased performances drawn from the period 2004-2007, sequenced and edited to provide the illusion of a single show. Disc two really is a single show, recorded on July 21, 2007. In practice, the two CDs taken together have an effect not unlike seeing Yonder Mountain String Band on an evening when they played an early set and a late set, or did a long concert with an intermission. The first set contains more concise songs, played in tighter arrangements. The second set is the looser one in which the bandmembers stretch out, worrying less about getting every note correct and more about musical exploration and feel. In both sets, the players' enthusiasm is contagious and their interplay creates a band effect that goes beyond the individual virtuosity of any one musician. At a time of diminishing record sales, when albums are becoming, more than ever before, souvenirs and calling cards for artists' live shows, Yonder Mountain String Band don't seem to have too much to worry about if their fans can depend on hearing shows as impressive as the ones documented here. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Yonder Mountain String Band'
Release Date 5/9/2006
Tracks 12
Label Vanguard
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'Mountain Tracks, Vol. 4'
Release Date 2/7/2006
Tracks 7
Label Frog Pad
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What The Critics Say
Since its inception, the Yonder Mountain String Band, which releases its own records through its Frog Pad label, has alternated studio releases with successive volumes of live albums all called Mountain Tracks. This time, Mountain Tracks, Vol. 4 follows Mountain Tracks, Vol. 3 without an intervening studio album. And that's fine. The group has made its reputation through its concerts, where the musicians can stretch out and try different things. The 50-minute CD introduces several excellent new originals in guitarist Adam Aijala's "Another Day" and bassist Ben Kaufmann's "Looking Over My Shoulder" and "River." But the live context also gives the band leave to expand its repertoire in unexpected directions. This is a group that previously has been willing to try Rolling Stones and Willie Nelson songs, but here they go much further afield, opening with a 13-minute bluegrass rendition of Talking Heads' "Girlfriend Is Better" and also throwing in a version of the Minutemen's "Corona." Such selections are their way of letting audiences know that, despite the traditional guitar-banjo-mandolin-acoustic bass lineup, this is not your father's bluegrass group. The third volume in the Mountain Tracks series expanded to two discs; this one follows contemporary trends by including a DVD, The Europe Bootlegs. It is a one-hour documentary directed by Jack Chester that chronicles the Yonder Mountain String Band's two-week tour of Europe in July 2003, which found the group playing in Ireland, England, and France. The word "bootleg" is a hint that the production values are not high; Chester and other camera operators follow the bandmembers around to radio stations, hotel rooms, and backstage holding areas, getting what footage they can in less-than-ideal circumstances. There are several performances, and they also live up to the "bootleg" description. But fans will get a sense of the different personalities of the musicians and enjoy seeing them slog through the typical experiences of a band on the road. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Mountain Tracks, Vol. 3'
Release Date 9/14/2004
Tracks 23
Label SCI Fidelity
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What The Critics Say
This double-disc set collects the highlights from a two-night concert by the Yonder Mountain String Band held at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, CO, on September 12 and 13, 2003, at the Kinfolk Celebration the band throws each year for its fans. A bluegrass/jam band hybrid, Yonder Mountain is certain proof that the two genres have as many similarities as differences. Both favor virtuoso musicianship and group dynamics over song structure, with the song becoming simply the springboard to long, soaring breaks. It should come as no surprise, then, that the best songs here are covers (Willie Nelson's "Bloody Mary Morning" and John Hartford's neo-hippie anthem "Holding" on disc one, and two traditional pieces on disc two, "Little Rabbit" and "Old Plank Road"), while the group's originals seem rather interchangeable. YMSB occupies the same sort of goofy universe that Phish does, and when you're among the converted, it's magical, and when you're one of the unconvinced, it's baffling. Putting all that aside, though, these guys are amazing musicians, and the frenetic bluegrass pace of their sets, coupled with the hard left turns into surprising new musical territory, means that while Yonder Mountain may be silly sometimes, they're seldom dull. The conclusion of the second show finds fiddler Darol Anger joining the group for an amazing modal suite that segues Bill Monroe's "Kentucky Mandolin" into a group original called "Peace of Mind," then into another original, "Snow on the Pines," before emerging again into a reprise of "Peace of Mind," all done with kinetic precision and a sound that is completely unique (industrial Appalachian chamber jazz-folk?). It's easy to see why their fan base continues to grow. And how can you fail to smile at a band that ends Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" (a hidden track at the end of the first disc) with a 30-second blast of the theme to the TV show Three's Company? The Yonder Mountain String Band creates a milieu in which such a transition makes perfect sense. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
A band knows they've made the big time -- at least in bluegrass and old-timey circles -- when Tim O'Brien and Darol Anger start guesting on their latest album. Old Hands also features guest spots by Dirk Powell and Jerry Douglas and has been produced by dobro player Sally Van Meter. Of course none of this would matter too much if the Yonder Mountain String Band didn't pretty much have their vocal and instrumental chops together to begin with. Guitarist Adam Aijala, banjoist Dave Johnston, mandolinist Jeff Austin, and bassist Ben Kaufmann form a smooth unit that calls to mind other recent bluegrass/folk groups like Rice, Rice, Hillman, and Pendersen and New Grange. Like these groups, the band relies on a number of lead vocalists, superb harmony, and an instrumental finesse to pull it all together. On Old Hands all of these elements are brought to bear on 13 songs by Benny Galloway, a guitarist/writer who also makes several appearances on the album. There's the spontaneous "Deep Pockets," a fun bit of Western swing with some clever guitar work by Aijala and some nice fiddle playing by O'Brien, and the equally upbeat "Pride of Alabama." Powell's accordion adds a bit of Cajun spice to "Big Lights," while Meter's slide guitar adds a lyrical quality to the mellow "Sleepy Cowboy." Old Hands is a nicely executed album of succinctly played songs, and Yonder Mountain String Band aficionados will be happy to get it in their hands. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., All Music Guide
'Mountain Tracks, Vol. 2'
Release Date 8/20/2002
Tracks 8
Label SCI Fidelity
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What The Critics Say
The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia was known for his affection for bluegrass, which led him to form side bands like Old & in the Way, but his reputation as an acid rock guitarist always stood in the way of wide acceptance in the bluegrass community. The Yonder Mountain String Band, representing a new generation of bluegrass pickers, not only seems ready to admit Garcia to the bluegrass pantheon, but also wants to adapt the Dead's taste for meandering improvisation to what was previously a form of music devoted to speed and economy. The group is thus evolving a new form of bluegrass that has earned it kudos in the jam band category, and this tendency is nowhere more evident than in their two live albums. This second one, recorded in the fall of 2001, gives a good sense of the band's proclivities and talents. They're not afraid to take off on extended excursions, stretching a medley of mandolinist Jeff Austin's "Peace of Mind" and "Follow Me Down to the Riverside" past 26 minutes, and their choice of covers is revealing. The Rolling Stones' faux country "No Expectations" is played for real and extended to ten minutes; outlaws Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson are recalled on "Good Hearted Woman"; and John Hartford's "Two Hits and the Joint Turned Brown" reeks of reggae and ganja. The Yonder Mountain String Band is becoming to bluegrass what the Kronos Quartet is to chamber music; just as that classical outfit shakes things up by performing Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" as an encore, so this bluegrass group does the unexpected by gathering around a single microphone on the album's hidden track, a soulful rendition of Pink Floyd's "Goodbye Blue Sky." Bill Monroe may be spinning in his grave, but the audience has a great time. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
As its title implies, Town By Town, the Yonder Mountain String Band's second studio recording and third CD overall, is something of a concept album about life on the road, the reality for the quartet's members since the group's formation. Mandolin player Jeff Austin's "New Horizons" concerns the rescue of a family from a flood, and guitarist Adam Aijala's "A Father's Arms" is a war story with a Vietnam-era tone, but even these two songs are about family and dislocation, and the rest of the songs are dominated by references to travel, with the necessary impact on the singers' love lives, resulting either in breakups or pleas for fidelity, a major factor. But the lyrics of these original songs penned by the band members, sung in their uniformly reedy tenors, are less significant than the music underlying them, a familiar mixture of fast-picked guitar, mandolin, and banjo, with producer Tim O'Brien adding welcome fiddle and bouzouki lines here and there. In addition to three outright instrumentals ("Easy As Pie," "Wildewood Drive," and "Hog Potato"), "New Horizons" and "Peace of Mind" both contain extended instrumental sections that go beyond the term "breakdown" into the kind of loose improvisation typical of rock bands like the Grateful Dead, justifying the group's inclusion under the jam band umbrella. Nevertheless, there is plenty here to enthuse a traditional bluegrass fan. (After three minutes of silence at the end of "Peace of Mind" comes a six-plus-minute hidden track, probably titled "Dance, Boatman, Dance," which is taken at a sprightly square dance tempo and features O'Brien's fiddle extensively.) ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Mountain Tracks, Vol. 1'
Release Date 1/1/2001
Tracks 6
Label Frog Pad
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What The Critics Say
Tie-dyed bluegrass for third-generation hippie jam band followers doesn't get much better than this band's sophomore release, a live album recorded over two nights at Boulder, CO's Fox Theatre. The band has fun with an unlisted rendition of Peter Tosh's "Legalize It" (hidden in the middle of their own "Keep on Going") and J.J. Cale's "If You're Ever in Oklahoma," but the opening cover of Carter Stanley's "Sharecropper's Son" sounds a tad too polished and buttoned-down to come across as a genuine tribute to an older musical tradition. Less a progressive bluegrass outfit than a jam band equipped with acoustic instruments and a vague sense of history, this band is at its best when it can stretch out and play off of each other during extended instrumental breaks. Though still unlikely to covert nonbelievers, Mountain Tracks, Vol. 1 is probably a perfect tour memento for this young band's growing legion of neo-hippie fans. ~ Brian Beatty, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
This Nederland, CO, band's brand of string band music is as steeped in the jam band tradition as it is in the high and lonesome bluegrass sounds originated by Bill Monroe. Though this isn't the first band to blend these influences, driving rhythms and exceptional picking make for an enjoyable debut, if not one without definite weaknesses. The band's vocals and songwriting talents (all four members sing and write) simply don't equal its instrumental abilities. Banjo player Dave Johnston's keening tenor sounds most believable floating above the band's rustic groove on "The Lonesome Heart" and the jukebox-ready alt-country weeper "Eight Cylinders." Jeff Austin is fast-fingered on the mandolin but sings too near the top of his limited vocal range. The Yonder Mountain String Band's chops put many of the album's weaker songs over anyway, suggesting that the band's live shows will make them wildly popular on the jam band and bluegrass festival circuits, where songwriting and singing are very often secondary to instrumental flash. Progressive bluegrassers Mike Marshall and Darol Anger make guest appearances. ~ Brian Beatty, All Music Guide
