TnJ 087 (9/24/09)

-HOUR ONE-

HOT BUTTERED RUM – Limbs Akimbo (2009 Limbs Akimbo)
STRING CHEESE INCIDENT – Looking Glass (9/23/03 Austin, TX)
KYLE HOLLINGSWORTH – Wide Open (2009 Then There’s Now)
JIM WEIDER’S PROJECT PERCOLATOR – Release Yourself (2009 Pulse)
CADILLAC JONES – Rhythm Method (2009 Rhythm Method)
JOHN COLTRANE – Equinox (1964 Coltrane’s Sound)
JIMMY CARPENTER – Don’t Believe It (2008 Toiling in Obscurity)

-HOUR TWO –

PAPA GROWS FUNK – Dolemite Returns (2006 Live at the Leaf)
RED ELVISES – I Wanna See You Bellydance (1999 Your Favorite Band LIVE)
PHISH – First Tube (8/1/09 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO)
moe. – Time Ed (2005 Warts & All Volume 4, 7/18/98 Carbondale, IL)
EMORY QUINN – Ships and Planes (2008 the Road Company)
MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD – Sometimes (2001 Stay Human)***
GOOSE CREEK SYMPHONY - Head for the Hills / Will the Circle Be Unbroken (2009 Head for the Hills, c. 1975)

*** As of this writing, wikipedia incorrectly lists www.stayhuman.org as Franti's official site - DON'T BELIEVE IT!

# # #

NATHAN MOORE NEWS

Santa Feans may remember Nathan Moore from ThaMuseMeant days. Since relocating back east, he's joined forces with The Slip and Marco Benevento to re-form Surprise Me, Mr. Davis, and also continues to release great solo roots records, such as his latest ("Folk Singer," on the Royal Potato Family label). Also check Frogville Records for Nathan's past releases.

Here's a couple of links you can check out to see what he's been up to lately:

A performance of "Hard Times" from the RELIX Magazine offices

And a brand new feature from JAMBASE

Santa Fe loves you, Nathan (^_^)

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IF I HADN'T SEEN IT...

...I wouldn'ta belieft it. If the Chuck Mead / Felice Brothers / Old Crow Medicine Show combo rolls through your town (and I think I overheard them saying they were going through Arizona next) -- YOU -- MUST -- SEE -- THIS.

I was so transfixed by the amazing, bestial showmanship on the stage tonight, I couldn't even bring myself to break away for a "trip to the loo." For like, 3 hours.

I'm still too shell shocked to make any cogent statements right now, actually.

SEE THIS

You won't be sorry. Forget what other people are saying is worth checking out. This is it. The most authentic, jubilant, visceral, insane, possibly deadly spectacle I've ever witnessed. Their energy level was so off-the-chart I kept thinking they were gonna hurt themselves. If they can keep this up indefinitely, they're definitely on to something.

God bless you all for such a magical night (^_^)

# # #

JAMES FELICE interview posted

Thanks to James Felice for taking time out before hitting the road to speak with me from rural, upstate New York. Thanks to Holland Nix for setting things up and turning me on to The Felice Brothers' "Yonder Is the Clock." It's great stuff.

Listen to the interview HERE

Don't forget they're playing in Santa Fe this Tuesday night (^_^)

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TnJ 086 (9/17/09)

-HOUR ONE-

LITTLE FEAT – Dixie Chicken > Tripe Face Boogie (1978 Waiting for Columbus)
James Felice – Interview part 1
FELICE BROTHERS – Penn Station (2009 Yonder Is the Clock) thefelicebrothers.com
FELICE BROTHERS – Run Chicken Run (2009 Yonder Is the Clock)
James Felice – Interview part 2
OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW – Alabama High-Test (2008 Tennessee Pusher)
fun. – All the Pretty Girls (2009 Aim and Ignite)
CHARLIE HUNTER – Two for Bleu (2000 Charlie Hunter)

-HOUR TWO-

LETTUCE – Twisted (2002 Outta Here)
TAJ MAHAL – Leaving Trunk (1968 Taj Mahal)
JOE COCKER – The Letter (1970 Mad Dogs & Englishmen)
JIM McPHERSON – Left Out In the Cold (2009 A Promise Kept, c. 1982)
BEN HARPER – Burn One Down (8/18/96 San Rafael, CA)
ZACH DEPUTY – Games (Roll Tonight) (2009 Sunshine) homegrownmusic.net
WIDESPREAD PANIC w/DEREK TRUCKS, SUSAN TEDESCHI, and YONRICO SCOTT – Angels On High (7/12/08 All Good Festival, Masontown, WV) livewidespreadpanic.com

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FELICE BROTHERS interview

Tune in this Thursday (9/17) to hear Toast's interview with James Felice of The Felice Brothers - then catch The Felice Brothers live at the Santa Fe Brewing Company on Tuesday (9/22). They're on the bill with Old Crow Medicine Show!

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CD REVIEW – PHISH “Joy” – 9/14/09

PHISH “Joy” – released 9/8/09 - phish.com

It’s been a long time since Phans have had a new studio disc from Fishman & co. Five years, in fact. Of course, a number of those years they weren’t even together anymore – seemingly for good this time.

I haven’t looked as forward to a CD release in a while, and yet rarely have been as disappointed with the release once it was in my stereo.

Of course, it’s arguable that anything so anticipated couldn’t possibly live up to expectations (“Phantom Menace,” anyone?), nor do I mean to say there aren’t some things to love about “Joy,” but it’s not an instant classic like “Rift” or “Billy Breathes.”

Maybe Burlington’s Phinest are merely trying to reclaim territory they already conquered from upstart, would-be usurpers who arose in their absence, but much of the material on “Joy” has a real “been-there, done-that” feel to my ears.

And yet, it’s exactly some of this shopworn material which pleases me the most among these 10 new tracks:

“Kill Devil Falls” recalls one of their earliest radio singles, “Chalk Dust Torture,” from 1992’s “A Picture of Nectar.” It chugs along in a passable rock-n-roll groove and is one of my favorite songs on this disc, yet lacks the ebullience in its execution which compelled me to drop everything and dance, or at least air-guitar, when “Chalk Dust Torture" was heard.

“Time Turns Elastic” certainly manages to masquerade as a classic Phish jam, clocking in at 13 minutes and change, and there’s never been a studio track of that chronological magnitude. But where an early epic like “The Divided Sky” or “Reba” succeeds without the benefit of a rabid audience to fuel its madness, “Time Turns Elastic” seems to merely hint at jams-to-come without ever actually jamming. It’s more akin to the carefully plotted, sprawling suites of Zappa, Rush, or Yes than to a Phish jam, but it certainly has the potential to blow the roof off a venue live, if allowed to breathe.

“Come hide in the herd and float with the flock,” from the anthropomorphic curiosity “Ocelot,” comes off like a quintessential Tom Marshall lyric – maybe a little too quintessential. For the uninitiated, Marshall is to Anastasio as John Perry Barlow is to Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, i.e. he cobbles together the trippy lyrics which make a Phish song so very Phishy when doled out over the psychedelic alchemy of the band’s musical structure (anyone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong). There’ve been many of these kinds of songs in the Phish catalog and, though not nearly as cringingly embarrassing as “Guyute,” from 1998’s “The Story of the Ghost,” it has an undercurrent of Phish going through the motions.

Of course, I’d argue all of Phish’s albums since “Ghost” have had that feeling all the way through, and I’d like to state for the record I think “Joy” is definitely a stronger statement of purpose than any of those. Maybe it’s the burgeoning curmudgeon I find myself becoming in the second half of life, but “Joy” is just oozing with happiness, and it’s not like I don’t get the feeling they’re sincere about it (this is the first album they’ve released without major label backing), it’s just a bit much for me to endure from a Phish album. Wither something akin to the creepiness of “Tweezer,” or the playful menace of “Fee”?

The title track, “Joy,” starts in the same earnest, heartfelt vein as “Waste,” from 1996’s “Billy Breathes,” also produced by Steve Lillywhite – no slouch of a producer, I might add – but quickly veers into a blissful and uninteresting chorus which begs me to turn my frown upside-down. Personally, whenever some twirly-dancing flower child begins orbiting me at a show, it’s usually all I can manage not to punch their lights out.

Honestly, I’ve heard more interesting stuff from the members of Phish during their individual jaunts of the last few years and, while this reunion is not nearly the half-hearted train wreck the last one was (see their clunky read of “Chalk Dust Torture” from SNL at the dawn of their last reunion), I can only hope that this is merely the first toddling step into a brave new Phish world yet to come.

~ Chris Diestler, A.K.A. Toast

TnJ 085 (9/10/09)

PHRESH PHISH PHRY-UP (^_^)

-HOUR ONE-

PHISH – Ocelot (2009 Joy)
PHISH – Joy (2009 Joy)
PHISH – Kill Devil Falls (2009 Joy)
GOV’T MULE – Frozen Fear (2009 By a Thread)
STEEZ – Trouser Snakes (2009 Creepfunk Crusade) homegrownmusic.net
FOUR FINGER FIVE – Bullets (2007 Four Finger Five)
JOHNNY WINTER – You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now (2009 the Woodstock Experience, c. 1969)

-HOUR TWO-

GRATEFUL DEAD – It Hurts Me Too (2/18/71 Capitol Theater, Port Chester, NY)
LEO KOTTKE – I Yell at Traffic (1995 Live)
CRACKER – Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (2003 Countrysides)
MiLkDrive – Baby Arm (2009 Live ’09)
EMMITT-NERSHI BAND – Mango Tango (2009 New Country Blues) scifidelity.com
GREG MERRITT’s HEAVY ROAD – Improvisation #4 (2/26/09 Day 2 demo) myspace.com/GregMerrittMusic
PHISH – Time Turns Elastic (2009 Joy)

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TnJ 084 (9/3/09)

-HOUR ONE-

WEEN – A Tear for Eddie (1994 Chocolate and Cheese)
THE FELICE BROTHERS – Chicken Wire > Ambulance Man (2009 Yonder Is the Clock)
THE RADIATORS – River Run (2009 the Lost Southlake Sessions)
KARL DENSON’s TINY UNIVERSE – Brother’s Keeper (part 1) > Brother’s Keeper (part 2) (2009 Brother’s Keeper)
OZOMATLI – Can’t Stop (2007 Don’t Mess with the Dragon)
UMPHREY’s McGEE – Mantis (2009 Mantis)

-HOUR TWO-

GREAT CAESAR’s GHOST – Bertha (2009 Better Off Dead)
RAILROAD EARTH – Railroad Earth (2005 Elko)
CASEY DRIESSEN – Uncontinental Breakfast (2009 Oog)
ROBERT WALTER – Snakes and Spiders (2008 Cure All)
ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND – Desdemona (7/10/04 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO)
THE SUBDUDES – All the Time in the World (2008 Live at the Ram’s Head)
BONERAMA – Funky Miracle (2001 Live at the Old Point)

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SHOW REVIEW - Yonder Mountain String Band 8/29/09, Santa Fe Brewing Company, Santa Fe, NM

First of all, Ben Kaufmann is a gracious, thoughtful human being. He soldiered on through not one, but two interviews. I am a technical Neanderthal. If you'd like to hear what the second interview sounded like, it will be posted on kbac.com (HERE)

I felt as though there were some things worth repeating from the first (unrecorded) interview, though. Firstly, Kaufmann is 5 months clean and sober, not that he was anxious to be preachy about it - far from it, actually - but he seemed very forthcoming about YMSB and their place in the world. I am truly sorry that his insights were lost to the ravages of technical ineptitude on my part.

Let me just say in summary, because I feel it may be a document to anyone who may write about them in them future, that when pressed to sum up the 4 characters who comprise YMSB, he listed them as follows:

Ben, himself, "The Foundation," which I took to mean "The Roots," as in, without those you have nothing upon which to stand, musically, philosophically, what have you.

Jeff Austin (mandolin), "The Rockstar." Hardly surprising an assessment, as I've seen him play that role happily through many years, despite not being in a rock band.

Adam Aijala (guitar), "The Rock," as in solid, the touchstone which grounds all the madness -- and grounded Ben after a particularly "out there" episode involving multiple shots of tequila. Not that Kaufmann wants to say that anyone out there doing something similar shouldn't be allowed to gauge their own abilities, just that it was, for him, time to rein it back and see whether or not he could perform sober. He admitted it has been, at times, difficult.

Dave Johnston (banjo), "The Mad Genius." Actually, what Kaufmann said was that he reminded him of Keith Richards and that he's written more amazing, groundbreaking material than will probably ever see the light of day. Apparently, Johnston has notebooks full of unrecorded, unreleased, absolutely brilliant material.

As for the show, itself - fun, fun, fun.

Xavier Rudd, the opener, said it best when he said it was like "being at a family barbeque." I didn't take it as an insult (though it may have been meant to be, due to the change of venue from an amphitheatre to a large outdoor patio). It really did have that casual feeling, as if you vaguely thought you actually knew everyone there, but just couldn't quite remember their names.

Carolyn Wonderland and Pigment both seemed good sports about sharing the evening with the displaced Rudd and YMSB, who'd been scheduled for a date at Paolo Soleri Amphitheatre which was, we are told, suffering from severe old age in the plumbing department.

After hearing YMSB rip through the John Hartford number "Up on the Hill Where We Do the Boogie," via Leftover Salmon's arrangement, they had me very nearly from the beginning.

Somewhere in the middle of the show they managed to invent, on the spot, a nice little ditty about changing a string while Dave Johnston restrung his banjo. It seems these guys are so dedicated to the string band art form they each have only one instrument, so all we could do was wait while Jeff Austin regaled us with ad libbed “lyrics” to the string-changing song, teasing Johnston for not being ready because he “never breaks a string.” Austin conceded to a string-breaking tally in the thousands, and told how even Kaufmann had broken a bass string once (in Moscow, ID, for the curious – having grown up near Moscow, I wondered if the gig might’ve been at John’s Alley, a quintessential roadhouse-style dive bar where many amazing up-and-comers have played). Finally, the banjo was restrung and retuned, and the show continued. Maybe I imagined it, but the banjo seemed particularly bright and plucky (no pun intended) for the remainder of the show.

Absolute highlight was their rendition of Frank Zappa's "I'm the Slime." You should be so lucky to hear something this amazing in your lifetime. After Adam Aijala's brain-melting guitar solo, the band seemed a little amazed as well.

I've seen Yonder many times over the years, and listened to many show recordings besides, and they seem to have a whole new show every time I see them. Yes, they played the "Boatman" dance, and yes, I've sat through many a rendition, and it's just impossible for me to resist its charms every time.

But most of the material was new to me, possibly because they just finished a new studio album (one of few in their collective career), and that's one thing I really like about YMSB - like snowflakes, no two shows are even remotely alike.

Kaufmann expressed immense gratitude that the audience seems to be there for their particular brand of jamgrass, which I can't help feeling needs some official moniker to carry it into the annals of music history. I was enjoying the show with an acquaintance from “the south” and it occurred to me that this kind of bluegrass might be a little different from the traditional "Kentucky" style, and I decided to call it "Colorado Bluegrass." The kind Sam Bush (uncrowned "king" of the venerable Telluride Bluegrass Festival) and Benny Galloway (unsung architect of the Colorado folk sound) have been championing for years without getting radio play. Though YMSB are about to release a studio album ("The Show," in September), I suspect their real fans have accumulated through word of mouth on the "Colorado Bluegrass" scene. It's like bluegrass, only without having to apologize for taking you into orbit for a few turns around the planet.

Thank you all for a great show. And if rumors that the opening soundcheck number was Metallica were true, and I missed it, well, sucks to be me.

# # #

LIPBONE REDDING & the LIPBONE ORCHESTRA

Live from KBAC's Studio 2 on 8/27/09! Thanks to Karen Grossman for setting it up. They are loads of fun live, and you should all book them on your show / at your venue a.s.a.p. (^_^) TOAST

GO HERE TO LISTEN

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TnJ 083 (8/27/09)

-HOUR ONE-

BLACK CROWES – Oh, Josephine (2009 Warpaint Live, 3/20/08 the Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA)
mary and mars – Sloop John B (2004 Live at the Old Blinking Light)
NEW RIDERS of the PURPLE SAGE – Dirty Business (7/29? Or 7/30/06, Turkey Trot Acres, Candor, NY)
NEW RIDERS of the PURPLE SAGE – Higher (2009 Where I Come From)
MIKE STERN – Check One (2009 Big Neighborhood)

-HOUR TWO-

GREYBOY ALLSTARS – Still Waiting (2007 Whatever Happened to Television?)
IVAN ‘FUNKBOY’ BODLEY – A Skunk & A Monkey (2009 Pigs Feet & Potted Meat)
ASSEMBLY of DUST featuring JOHN SCOFIELD – Borrowed Feet (2009 Some Assembly Required)
WIDESPREAD PANIC – Fishing (7/22/03 Paolo Soleri Amphitheatre, Santa Fe, NM)
WILCO – Solitaire (2009 Wilco [the Album])
XAVIER RUDD – No Woman No Cry (2005 Solace)
YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND – Elzic’s Farewell > No Expectations (4/28/06 Sunshine Theater, Albuquerque, NM)
NATHAN MOORE – Hard Times (2009 Folk Singer)

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TnJ 082 (8/20/09)

-HOUR ONE-

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND – Complicated (2009 the Show)
YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND – Too Late Now (4/11/09 the Fillmore, San Francisco, CA)
LED ZEPPELIN – That’s the Way (9/29/71 Osaka, Japan)
SAM BUSH – the Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle (2009 Circles Around Me)
LIPBONE REDDING and the LIPBONE ORCHESTRA – Be Thankful for What You Got (2009 Science of Bootyism)
THE MOTET – Mighty (2009 Dig Deep)
PHISH – Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove (7/30/09 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO)

-HOUR TWO-

ERIC CLAPTON – Motherless Children (1974 461 Ocean Boulevard)
CHET ATKINS / LES PAUL – Caravan (1977 Chester & Lester)
TINARIWEN – Mataraden Anexan (2001 the Radio Tisdas Sessions)
GOGOL BORDELLO – Dub the Frequencies of Love (2007 Super Taranta!)
FRANK ZAPPA – Drowning Witch (11/3/84 SUNY, Stony Brook , NY)
KYLE HOLLINGSWORTH – Phat Cat (2009 Then There’s Now)
CULTURE – No Night (1997 Trust Me)
BERES HAMMOND – Give It All You’ve Got (2008 A Moment in Time)

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TnJ 081 (8/13/09)

-HOUR ONE-

ASSEMBLY of DUST featuring MIKE GORDON – Arc of the sun (2009 Some Assembly Required)
GOOSE CREEK SYMPHONY – Number One Gravy Band (2009 Head for the Hills: Special Edition, c. 1975) goosecreeksymphony.com
DAVIS COEN – You Gonna Miss Me (2009 Magnolia Land) daviscoen.com
BEN HARPER – Fight for Your Mind (4/12/98 Biskuithalle, Bonn, Germany)
OZOMATLI – Believe (2004 Street Signs)
STEVE KIMOCK BAND – Better Git Hit in Your Soul (10/28/01 Tipitina’s Uptown, New Orleans, LA)

-HOUR TWO-

JOAN OSBORNE – Dreamin’ About the Day (1996 Early Recordings, c. 1991)
BOB MARLEY & the WAILERS – Stop That Train (10/31/73 the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA)
moe. – Kyle’s Song > Interstellar Overdrive > Brent Black (2008 Dr. Stan’s Prescription, Vol. 1, 3/8/04 moe.cruise) moe.org

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TnJ 080 (8/6/09)

Dang, but that new Zach Deputy CD is even better than the first one! Very groovy, my friend (^_^) TOAST

-HOUR ONE-

LEFTOVER SALMON – Railroad Highway (2002 Live)
MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD – Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong (2008 All Rebel Rockers)
ZACH DEPUTY – Sunshine (2009 Sunshine) homegrownmusic.net
GREENSKY BLUEGRASS – The Radio Blues (2006 Tuesday Letter)
nelo – You Don’t Know (2008 nelo)
EUFORQUESTRA – Tramba (2005 The Adventures of Glen Devey) homegrownmusic.net
IVAN NEVILLE’s DUMPSTAPHUNK – Cannot Make It (3/20/09 Highline Ballroom, NYC)

-HOUR TWO-

ROBERT RANDOLPH & the FAMILY BAND – Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That (2006 Colorblind)
ANA POPOVIC – Wrong Woman (2009 Blind for Love) electogrooverecords.com
WALTER TROUT – Somebody’s Acting Like a Child (2009 Unspoiled by Progress, c. 1989, Huntington Beach, CA)
JJ GREY & MOFRO – By My Side > Nare Sugar (7/13/07 Howelsen Hill, Steamboat Springs, CO)
GALACTIC w/Lateef the Truth Speaker – No Way (2007 From the Corner to the Block)
JACOB FRED JAZZ ODYSSEY – Drethoven (2009 One Day in Brooklyn)
THE DEVIL MAKES THREE – Aces and Twos (2009 Do Wrong Right) thedevilmakesthree.com
ASSEMBLY of DUST featuring KELLER WILLIAMS – Second Song (2009 Some Assembly Required)

# # #

TnJ 079 (7/30/09)

-HOUR ONE-

GRATEFUL DEAD – Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (3/15/90 Landover, MD)
JERRY GARCIA & DAVID GRISMAN – The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest (2004 Been All Around This World)
THE WIYOS – All Aboard (2009 Broken Land Bell)
ToasT – interview part 1 toastband.net
ToasT – Shrinkage (2009 the Mad Science) homegrownmusic.net
ToasT – interview part 2
ToasT – Jam Sammich (2009 the Mad Science)
ToasT – interview part 3
PHISH – Time Turns Elastic (6/21/09 Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI)

-HOUR TWO-

THE RADIATORS – Soul Deep (2009 the Lost Southlake Sessions)
BORIS & the SALTLICKS – Torn Faith (2006 Cactusman Versus the Blue Demon) frogvilleplanet.com
PIGMENT – Life Born to Lead (2008 Pigment) pigmentjam.net
JIMI HENDRIX – Izabella (1994 Woodstock)
JERRY JOSEPH & the JACKMORMONS – Chainsaw City (2003 Mouthful of Copper)
SON VOLT – When the Wheels Don’t Move (2009 American Central Dust)
GOV’T MULE – Wandering Child (1999 LIVE…With a Little Help from Our Friends, Vol. 2)

# # #

TOAST interviews ToasT

Austin rock band ToasT (playing El Paseo this Friday) will be interviewed on the show tonight via telephone. TUNE IN

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BLACK CROWES TIX

From the promoter:

"Good old fashioned Rock and Roll comes to Santa Fe Center, Santa Fe's new convention center when The Black Crowes invade....
Wednesday, Oct 21 at 7:30.
This is a seated show, limited reserved seating is $53 and then GA seats available is $39
Tickets go on sale THIS Friday, July 31 at 10AM online at http://www.ticketssantafe.org... The Lensic box.. 988-1234."

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STRINGDUSTERS on YouTube

Check out pieces of The Infamous Stringdusters' latest visit to New Mexico on YouTube

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SHOW REVIEW 7/10/09

INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS 7/10/09 Santa Fe Brewing Company, Santa Fe, NM

I don’t know how they do it, but they seem to get better every time. This is a band at the height of their magical powers. See them now!

Surprises/highlights:

“High on a Mountaintop,” an old Del McCoury tune they’ve added to their sets. They may well have sacrificed small animals to elder gods to obtain this dark, swampy arrangement. Bluegrass meets Metallica by way of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Haunting and brilliant.

“End of the Line” could be one of those songs music historians look back on 20 years from now and say, “Right there, that’s where the whole thing started to take off.” Though it hails from Jeremy Garrett’s solo disc, “I Am a Stranger,” this tune really comes alive when the whole Stringdusters combo lays into it. Instantly memorable.

“In God’s Country” – yes, the U2 song off “The Joshua Tree,” though you’d barely recognize it. The Stringdusters have made this one their own by re-arranging it into what they’re best at: psychedelic bluegrass. I hope they keep it in their repertoire, because I can’t wait to hear what it morphs into.

“Get It While You Can” just keeps getting funkier. I thought the last time I heard them do this was just a fluke, but they actually seem intent on trailblazing the new hybrid of bluegrass-funk. More power to them.

If you’ve ever wondered where the next Johnny Cash might be coming from, check out Jeremy Garrett on “Tragic Life.” Originally from the Stringdusters’ first album, “Fork in the Road,” this tune about infidelity and murder has become a sprawling, dusty, bloody epic. Worthy of the label “outlaw country.”

Every single one of these musicians managed to amaze me at one point or another during the show. Jesse Cobb was the first – pushing his mandolin to the extreme on several of the opening numbers. Though I love bluegrass, I’ve never been particularly fond of the mandolin. I always felt its sound was too wispy to really get down and dirty, but Cobb proved me wrong.

Andy Falco did the acoustic guitar proud, picking faster than my eyes could follow at times. Could it be they were just trying to outdo each other, tag-teaming our eardrums? One Stringduster would blow the top of my head off, only to have another step in with their musical pastry torch and caramelize my brain like a crème brulee.

I can’t believe the punishment Andy Hall was dishing out to his dobro, particularly during the one-two punch of “Deep Elem Blues” and “Black Rock.” I love the sound of a dobro, but have never seen one played so insistently; the kind of pummeling you might resort to when you realize your bed partner enjoys things a little rougher than most.

And Travis Book on the upright bass – I’ve never known how one mere mortal can rock that instrument. It seems so huge, like one of those insanely oversized motorcycles you could practically live in. Someone driving an upright bass down the freeway I could believe. They’re tanks. Book holds down the groove, jams, sings, and somehow makes it look effortless.

As usual, banjo picker Chris Pandolfi was the last to join the fun. Maybe it just takes him a while to get into it, or maybe the banjo is just that hard to play, I don’t know, but he always seems to be kind of holding back until the very end. Man, when he finally lets loose though, it is truly amazing to behold.

At one point in the show, my friend, Darla, commented that Jeremy Garrett plays the fiddle with his whole body. I had just noticed him writhing and slithering through one of his numbers, possibly the aforementioned “Tragic Life.” I had to agree that Garrett seemed to be leeching energy from the earth, up through his feet, stirring it up through his knees and waist, and finally, blasting it straight through his arms to the fiddle, setting it ablaze with psychic fire.

Actually, in the end, I think the band had set us all ablaze with psychic fire.

The Infamous Stringdusters are the most amazing and honest acoustic combo out there right now. If you are not ready for the next level of bluegrass, best you just stay home and leave more room for me and mine to shimmy.

~ Chris Diestler, AKA “TOAST”

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