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THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS 2/21/09 Santa Fe Brewing Company, Santa Fe, NM
How to speak about my recent -- and first -- live concert experience with The Infamous Stringdusters without stealing previous writers’ hyperbole may be difficult, but I’m gonna give it a try:
These guys are IT.
I’d managed to divert them to KBAC-FM (98.1 Radio Free Santa Fe) on their way to soundcheck for the closing night of their soon-to-be (pardon the pun) infamous Ski Tour 2009 long enough to interview them and get them to play a few songs live on the air.
I’ve interviewed many bands, but never before has a 6-piece acoustic band arrived early with smiles on, got tuned, and hit the airwaves with a live jam right at the previously agreed-upon show time. I guess when you’re only 3 ½ years into your run, have already won a platoon of awards, shared the stage with living legends of your root genre (in this case, bluegrass, for those not yet hip to their thing), and book some 130 shows a year, a certain level of professionalism is to be expected, but these guys are like clockwork.
This is not to say they don’t jam. It’s just not a lazy, aimless, meandering kind of jamming. They don’t noodle – they PLAY.
They seemed a little stunned when I asked how they felt about the being called a more progressive kind of jamgrass or newgrass, as though no one’s ever labeled them that before (they have), but new kid Andy Falco – who replaced founding guitarist Chris “Critter” Eldridge, now playing with Chris Thile in the almost excessively baroque Punch Brothers – stepped in to fill the void with a humble, “Cool, yeah, thanks.”
I came to realize this band is almost reverently aware of their roots, but are nevertheless taking what has gone before and doing something new with it. My mom would call it “taking the scenic route” on interminably long car trips in the summer. This band likes the side roads. Yes, Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident, Railroad Earth, New Monsoon, Yonder Mountain String Band and Hot Buttered Rum have blazed similar trails, but The Infamous Stringdusters have an almost transcendent songsmanship (if I may coin that term) usually missing from the typical jamgrass stew.
Maybe it’s because they cut their teeth on the demanding Nashville scene, paying their dues if you will, playing as sidemen for names that are bigger than theirs might ever be (though I’m certainly rooting for them to prove me wrong there). Maybe it was just a matter of right place, right time, when they realized what chemistry they had and decided to devote themselves to it full time. Whatever cosmic alignment of arcane tides formed such a band, we are all enriched because of it.
On to the show:
Stupendous.
The Santa Fe Brewing company wasn’t yet full-to-bursting on this Saturday night, but after the warm-up on the radio earlier, we were ready for a SHOW, by cracky. Opener was “Travelin’ Teardrop Blues,” a gem from also-Nashville-based Shawn Camp, segueing into “Three Days in July” – a song from the new IS release penned by Jon Weisberger and Mark Simos, both of whom seem to have been around the block; both somehow having managed to avoid widespread fame thus far. The Infamous Stringdusters seem intent on spelunking the furthest, unexplored reaches of the talent pool they have access to, both in Nashville and on obscure nuggets from their record collections.
During the interview I asked if there was anyone who tops their dream list of people to someday work with. Having already shared the stage and/or the production studio with legends in the field like David Grisman, Del McCoury, and Tim O’Brien, they all agreed next on the list would be Tony Rice. On the air as well as at this show they pulled out Rice’s cover of Jerry Reed’s “Likes of Me,” which comes from a Tony Rice album called “Cold on the Shoulder,” released in 1984, back when a whole lotta not-many-folks were buying bluegrass records.
But they’re not just historians, archaeologists, or curators of the unusual. They’ve got an impressive repertoire of originals. I’m guessing some of the songs we heard tonight might be new songs-a-brewin’ – they hinted at recording a new album (their third as a combo) this spring. Personally, I can’t wait. Two Travis Book numbers from the second album – “Won’t Be Coming Back” and “You Can’t Handle the Truth” – highlighted the first set, showcasing the bittersweet and the wryly lively sides of Book’s talent, and proved he’s got what it takes to hold up his end of the lead vocal duties.
IS have 3 lead vocalists if you’re keeping score at home but, true to bluegrass tradition, excel at vocal harmony and interplay, and use them often. This is definitely a group effort, greater than the sum of its parts, as proved by the first set’s closing two-fer: “Lovin’ You,” written by Sarah Siskind (recently on tour with critic’s darling Bon Iver), from the current album, and the wistful “Dream You Back,” one of IS fiddler Jeremy Garrett’s from their debut. “Dreambacks,” as it’s referred to on the hand-written setlist, is the kind of contemporary bluegrass number that feels immediately familiar, like an old pair of slippers you can’t bring yourself to throw out because their comfort far outweighs their antiquity. And I’ve made no secret of the fact that I think their recording of “Lovin’ You” is absolutely the best single of 2008, regardless of genre. Every time they perform it, it’s a little different. I caught Book and Garrett leaning into the studio monitors earlier at the radio station while I spun a live version of “Lovin’ You” from the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO (4/15/08). It had never occurred to me that performers like this wouldn’t be just constantly revisiting past performances like a star ball player might review old plays on “tape,” or whatever passes for tape these days. But they were listening to the jam on this recording with big old smiles on their faces and nodding their heads in approval, much like I probably did the first time I heard that show (it’s amazing). Tonight’s “Lovin’ You” was perfect during the verses, and completely original and amazing during the extended jam which always seems to follow. It’s as if any-and-every jam conceivable with a 6-piece acoustic combo can, has, or will be explored during this song’s stagelife, long may it be.
At this point, I’d already witnessed the most rousing newgrass set in years and we all adjourned briefly to the patio to discuss its merits with an entire second set yet to be experienced. One thing we talked about was the instrumentals.
The Infamous Stringdusters have more than a few outstanding instrumental numbers. My last question to them during the interview was how they settled on some of said instrumental’s names. I will recount them for you now, in case you’re the sort who also finds such minutiae interesting:
“Glass Elevator” was named after banjo picker Chris Pandolfi had apparently watched Willy Wonka. I neglected to ask which version, but here’s hoping it wasn’t Tim Burton’s “more accurate” atrocity.
Pandolfi’s “Moon Man” makes reference to a colorful fellow in Georgia they took a “shine” to. Shine as in what them Duke Boys ran. Yep.
Dobro player Andy Hall’s “No Resolution” was dubbed thusly by one Kitsy Kuykendall – wife of Bluegrass Unlimited’s editor, and board member of the International Bluegrass Museum – apparently due to the song’s unpredictable, open-ended nature (which of course means it’s a great one to jam on).
“Black Rock” was the instrumental title I had wondered the most about prior to the interview. My bet was on some kind of Burning Man Festival connection, though I also thought it might be a super-obscure reference to the very old, yet amazingly preserved, derelict galleon on the best science-fiction show ever to air, “Lost.” Nope. Turns out Hall was surfing Google Earth one day, looking at islands near the coast of Maine and “Bam!” there it was. Now you know.
Jesse Cobb’s “40 West” – named for, you guessed it, US Interstate 40 West, opened the second set. And what a set it would be.
A Bill Monroe tune called “Blue Night” was an early 2nd set highlight for me. I had heard they performed it once with David Grisman in San Francisco, but this was my first listen. You know when the old timers say “they just don’t write ‘em like that anymore”? This is one of those. Pristine and gorgeous, you’re almost afraid of listening too closely for fear of accidentally breaking the damn thing.
“Poor Boy’s Delight” is always one of mine. You can’t beat a line like “The Devil would die if you danced one with me.” Credited to Benny Galloway, perpetually nearly-famous Colorado folkster with a list of finely crafted songs a mile long, this is one of the most memorable songs on the first album – heartfelt, exquisite. And, surprise! They pulled Galloway himself from the crowd for a quick run through “Sugartown” halfway through the second set, and the now-capacity crowd really started getting into it.
Oh, but The Infamous Stringdusters weren’t done with us yet. In fact, though they’d certainly managed to give everyone their money’s worth at this point, I got the feeling they were just getting started. Something Falco said earlier on the radio replayed itself in my mind: “We really like to play, so we tend to play as long as possible.” They didn’t mention they were going for the world record. Almost 2 hours and counting – land sakes!
“Fork in the Road,” an award-winning track from their debut, still sounded lively and fresh. If they’ve played it a thousand times and are sick to death of it, none of that showed tonight.
By the time they made it through the aforementioned instrumental “No Resolution,” I was sure they must be winding down.
But no! Special guest #2 took the stage – Bob Heminger from Pagosa Springs, CO, and get this: he brought a sax. Yes! A sax in a bluegrass combo. Who’da thunk it? You know what happens when you throw a sax into a bluegrass combo? You get the funkiest reading of “Get It While You Can (a Danny Barnes tune from 2003’s ‘Dirt on the Angel’)” y’ever did hear. Heminger admitted afterwards it’s very difficult to coax the sax into playing something that meshes with bluegrass, but he managed to work it through several numbers, and stayed with them through to the end, possibly because it’s nearly impossible to get off the SFB stage once the crowd has filled in – most concert stages have an area accessible to the performers but not to the audience, usually dubbed “backstage” or, in theater, “The Green Room.”
Well, right about here the official setlist runs out, but either because the SFB has no backstage or the IS were having such a good time, Andy Hall announced they would simply launch right into the encore. These included Jeremy Garrett’s heartbreakingly beautiful “Starry Night” and Travis Book taking front and center for John Hartford/New Grass Revival’s “Steam Powered Aero Plane,” as well as at least 2 extended instrumental jams, but I was so into it at this point I failed to keep track. Seriously, the encore was as long as a traditional bluegrass combo’s entire set.
The weird thing about the show was this: I’m pretty sure some or all of the IS had smiles on their faces the whole time. Sure, when Jesse Cobb or Andy Hall were in the middle of a particularly blazing solo, they may have temporarily adopted a concentrative look, but mostly they were smiling. Right down to clowning around with a cardboard cutout of Roy Rogers I never was really sure if they had brought in as a mascot or if it was always part of the SFB stage props. When I thought about it, I realized I was probably smiling the whole time too. We all were smiling for some 3 hours straight.
A nice couple let us share their portable fire pit in the lot afterward. They were a little older, and their fifth wheel and camping gear implied they’d traveled to a lot of festivals. They’d seen the IS several times before, but were quick to point out that this time the whole band really seemed to be enjoying themselves. As Steve Martin once said, “you can't play a sad song on the banjo - it always comes out so cheerful.” I know I had certainly come out cheerful.
If you’ve seen the IS before, or listened to their formative shows, as I have, you know they’ve always had something extra special. But, as the lot couple observed, maybe they’re just now really hitting their stride. Or maybe this is just one of several plateaus in what will hopefully be a long and storied career.
Regardless, when they come to a venue near you, you must check out the Infamous Stringdusters. Bring your party hat and be ready to dance, clap, stomp, whistle, and sing. But mostly, be ready to smile.
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Check out The Infamous Stringdusters’ official site here.
And listen to the entire KBAC IS interview/performance here.
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