Yonder
Mountain String Band
Bluegrass is a music steeped in tradition, but
over the past decade and a half — much of it spent on the road — Yonder
Mountain String Band has spearheaded a renegade movement to rewrite the
definition of the genre. Alongside other neo-bluegrass friends such as
Leftover Salmon, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, The Travelin’
McCourys, and Railroad Earth, YMSB has thoroughly revitalized and
contemporized bluegrass and introduced it to many thousands of new fans.
Rolling Stone said that YMSB “liberates bluegrass’ hot-shit
riffing and blue-sky harmonies from its hidebound formalism,” while
Paste Magazine wrote, “The Yonder Mountain boys have found a
formula that works: take rootsy bluegrass influences, add in some rock ‘n’ roll,
and seek out an adventurous audience.”
That adventurous audience will
eagerly embrace YMSB EP ’13, to be released on CD and vinyl Oct.
8, 2013 on the band’s own Frog Pad Records, and October 15 digitally.
Self-produced by YMSB, the four-track EP features one song written and sung by
each member: “Straight Line” by Ben Kaufmann (bass, vocals), “Don’t Worry
Happy Birthday” by Dave Johnston (banjo, vocals), “Rag Doll” by Jeff
Austin (mandolin, vocals) and special guest songwriter Danny Barnes,
and “All the Time” by Adam Aijala (guitar, vocals). The recording was cut
at Electrical Audio in Chicago during a momentary break from the road, a method
that seems to suit Yonder Mountain String Band’s hectic pace.
“The EP is
something we recorded while on the road,” says Kaufmann. “We seek out studios to
work in while touring, and while the juices are flowing and chops are at maximum
potential, we take a couple of days to record. There are four singers and four
songwriters in the band; what a perfect way for us to release studio
material.”
Touring is in this band’s DNA, and YMSB has evolved into
something of a phenomenon on the concert and festival circuit — they are, in
fact, one of the top touring bluegrass bands in the country today. Yonder
Mountain has sold out Colorado’s famed Red Rocks several times, and played
sold-out shows with ex-Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh at his
Terrapin Crossroads in August 2012. They also host three singular music
festivals every year — Northwest String Summit (now in its 12th year and
hosted by YMSB every year), Harvest Music Festival (where they will host
for the fourth time in October 2013), and Strings & Sol (Yonder hosts
for the second year-in-a-row in Mexico in December 2013) — and have
consecutively sold out runs of shows at Telluride Bluegrass Festival year
after year. In all, Yonder Mountain logs over 100 live dates per year, allowing
them to polish their material — and after hunkering down in a recording studio
for a couple of days at a time, to release studio tracks at their highest level
of ability.
“YMSB EP ’13 is the first in a series of EPs we’ll
release,” says Aijala. “We dropped one show per tour to head into the recording
studio. Touring is such a big part of Yonder’s life that recording while out on
the road is an excellent new paradigm for us.” Kaufmann adds, “The music world
is so different these days, it’s all about bite-sized chunks, so we felt a
series of EPs was the best way to capture magic in the studio, and something
that our fans could truly relate to. We asked ourselves, what’s really feasible
when you have a band with so many songwriters? When you have an EP, you can have
all these connections and interrelations in four songs, it just works for
YMSB.”
“Yes, we will make a full-length album again,” Aijala assures,
“but for now our focus while out on the road is to find special recording
studios, and lay down a handful of tracks at a time.”
The result this
first time out is a testament to the hit-and-run concept. That
inter-connectedness Johnston talks about becomes apparent when the four songs
are absorbed as a whole. “There’s a discussion going on with all the tunes,” he
says. “At the core of the whole thing, there are four different voices, talking
about different ways of being apart from things. The characters are examining
how to relate to the circumstances unfolding around them in their lives. In
‘Don’t Worry,’ at the heart of the song there’s a guy guilty for being gone. It
goes deeper than a man who has forgotten the birthday of someone he loves; it is
an apology for all the things he has forgotten, missed or
neglected.”
“Straight Line” examines the failure of good intentions,
about realizing that while it seemed easier at times to take the straight line,
the narrator of the song missed a lot of growth, adventure and experiences. By
being too focused on the future, one loses sight on what is happening
now.
Aijala, who wrote “All the Time,” says, “You can find connections if
you really pay attention.” But, about his own contribution, he adds, “‘All the
Time’ didn’t come from a personal place. I’m totally happy in the relationship
I’m in. I felt in the mood to write a song, and it came out in a single day.
Other songs are different, I mean, Ben and I have a song we started in 2002 and
it’s still not done.”
“Rag Doll,” co-written by Jeff Austin and Danny
Barnes, taps back into a 25 year-old daydream. Austin notes, “This song started
as a daydream I would have as a kid. I would walk around and make up songs,
singing them to myself all the time. I’m capturing a kid dreaming about what can
be possible in the future. I had written the first part of the chorus, and took
it to Danny, who I’ve known for many years. The connectivity of his voice, I
just love what he came up with, ‘I’m a rag doll peepin’ in your window
shade.'”
At the core of each song, there’s distance, adds Johnston. “The
speakers are not in the middle of the action, they are away from the action. But
every one of the speakers is trying to examine his life. I think all artists
unconsciously wonder, ‘How effective is what I’m doing? What difference does it
make if I act good or bad?'”
For YMSB EP ’13, the band dispensed
with outside producers and took the studio reins themselves. “I thought that
self-producing the record would provide us with an opportunity to understand our
music as we saw it, not that we are averse to working with a producer,” says
Johnston. “Also, scheduling time to get away after a busy tour left us limited
options. But it’s exactly these sorts of constraints that make for creative
solutions and hopefully creative music.”
“These days it’s about flow, for
me,” adds Kaufmann, who wrote his contribution, “Straight Line,” about a decade
ago, started playing it live with Adam in 2010, and finally brought it into the
studio for the EP. “What are the things I can do to keep creativity flowing?” he
asks. “And how can Yonder continue to create and produce material with ease?
Yonder spends so much time on tour, performing live music, and we’re at our best
when we’re playing live. What better time, then, to record? By integrating
studio recording with touring I feel we give ourselves every opportunity to
capture Yonder Mountain at our best. The new EP captures the true sound of
Yonder better than any of our previous releases, in my opinion.”
Adds
Jeff Austin, succinctly, “It’s always inspiring to try new things, so, why not?!
To take some songs that people have only known live and to give them a different
take, it’s always interesting to hear their reactions.”
In addition to
the music itself, fans will surely take notice of the striking artwork that
graces the cover of YMSB EP ’13. It was created by Johnny Sampson,
who has produced 27 different poster designs for YMSB since 2009. Describing his
intent with the cover, Sampson says, “The design represents four different
elements (spine, veins, tree branch, various instrument strings) intertwining to
form a unified whole. Implied is the bond of the four members of the band.
Separately, they each have their own distinct contrasting attributes, but
together they exist as a tight-knit group of organized chaos. I like that it’s
an enigmatic image and tells an open-ended story, with no real right or wrong
interpretation.”
Says Johnston, summing up, “I’m really excited about
putting out the EP because it is a step in the right direction: working under
our own creative control and intuition, being motivated to record on tour, and
keeping an open dialogue about what we want out of our releases. The next EP
could be songs we’ve never performed before,” he adds. “We could work with a
producer. Fans can expect the unexpected!”
And that, in the end, has
always been what YMSB has been about: expecting the unexpected!
For more
information on Yonder Mountain String Band, please visit www.yondermountain.com.
YMSB FALL TOUR DATES
10/9 –
Wilmington, NC – Greenfield Amphitheater
10/10 – Charlotte, NC – Amos’
Southend
10/11 – Athens, GA – The Georgia Theater
10/12 – Silk Hope, NC –
Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival
10/13 – Chattanooga, TN – Track 29
10/16
– Oxford, MS – The Lyric
10/17 – 10/19 – Ozark, AK – Mulberry Mountain
Harvest Music Festival
10/23 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall Ballroom
10/24
– Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
10/25 & 10/26 – Chicago, IL – House of
Blues
10/29 & 10/30 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
10/31 –
Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
11/1 – Boston, MA – House of
Blues
11/2 – Portland, ME – State Theater
12/11 – 12/14 – Puerto Morelos,
Mexico – Strings & Sol
12/27 – 12/31 – Boulder, CO – Boulder
Theater