YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND At 26 years old, Grammy-nominated Yonder Mountain String Band continues to exist at the forefront of the progressive bluegrass scene as one of the undeniable innovators and pioneers of the modern jamgrass movement.
Bending bluegrass with elements of rock, alternative and improvisational music, Yonder Mountain brought their high-energy, sound and psychedelic light show into rock n’ roll settings with tremendous success, proving it possible for a bluegrass band to not only exist but excel in a rock world without drums. The inroads they made created opportunities for like-minded acoustic bands to perform at festivals, rock clubs, theaters and stadiums previously considered off-limits for string bands.
Yonder Mountain's original music and anything goes attitude helped cultivate a spirit of collaborative improvisation that continues to fuel today’s progressive bluegrass and jamgrass scenes.
It is a testament to the legacy of Yonder Mountain String Band that their original songs and unique interpretations of covers are regularly performed by next generation marquee bluegrass bands.
Yonder Mountain String Band hits the ground running in 2024 with two studio album releases, a full touring schedule and special musical guest, fiddle shredder, Coleman Smith.
First up is a look into Yonder’s storied history with a previously unreleased studio project: an EP featuring the original lineup of Adam Aijala, Dave Johnston, Ben Kaufmann and the late Jeff Austin. The tracks were recorded December 13th and 14th, 2010 and January 28th, 2011 in Boulder, Colorado at Coupe Studios. The EP titled I’d Like Off, will be released March 29th.
November 8th, Yonder Mountain will release the follow-up studio album to their critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated album, Get Yourself Outside. This will be Yonder Mountain’s 11th studio record and the 2nd collaboration written by founding members Adam Aijala (Guitar, Vocals), Ben Kaufmann (Bass, Vocals), Dave Johnston (Banjo, Vocals) and Nick Piccininni (Mandolin, Banjo, Fiddle, Vocals). Nick Piccininni joined the band in 2020 as a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. Nick’s boundless musical talent and passion has imbued a renewed energy and joy to the band.
Award-winning, cross-genre violinist and fiddle-shredder, Coleman Smith (Rapidgrass, David Lawrence & The Spoonful, The Bluegrass Journeymen), is taking an extended leave from his international touring schedule to join Yonder Mountain String Band. From their first show together in June of 2023, the band felt an instant musical and personal connection with Cole and they are excited for their fans to experience his exceptional talent and charisma firsthand.
RIVER VALLEY RANGERS
Rolling plains, crackling campfires, and late night string sessions are just some of the scenes that float into one’s mind when absorbing one of Midwestern quartet River Valley Rangers’ forthright compositions. Throughout their 5 year tenure, the group has remained a steadfast contributor to the “newgrass” genre through their inventive, free-flowing flatpicking styles and arrangements, all the while paying omnipresent homage to the pioneers of the conventional bluegrass style. While the traditional instrumentation of their songs resounds with familiarity, the techniques they employ––rhythmic changes, melodic sequences, breakdowns, improvised jamming––yield an ever-evolving sonic landscape, rippled with nods to more orthodox offerings from within the realm.
The Rangers, comprised of Mark Messer (mandolin, vocals), Jesse Beilfuss (upright bass, vocals), Daniel Watkins (guitar, vocals), and Ben Zorn (fiddle, vocals), followed unique paths into the world of music-making, yet each exhibit an aptitude for harmonizing, songwriting, and audience interplay. They also share a willingness to experiment: one may find an array of heterogeneous tunes in any given live set, be it a jaunty number about the simplicities of rural living, an old-time standard, or a crowd-stirring alt rock cover––the band leans into musical diversity. This characteristic is the hallmark of a repertoire that runs deep and varied, much like the colorful river beds that etch themselves into the prairies of the group’s Illinois home.
Listing influences spanning Tony Rice to Phish, thoughtful notations rip through Rangers jams, creating a dynamic sound tunnel which eagerly sweeps listeners into an experience that is both entertaining and confounding, underpinned by lightning-fast, ever-tight string maneuvering. As the River Valley Rangers continue to traverse the U.S. throughout Summer 2021, their uplifting tunes in tow, they will channel the experiences that the road’s boundless nature bestows upon them into their forthcoming EP, due out later this year. Boasting appearances with artists such as Jeremy Garrett of the Grammy award-winning The Infamous Stringdusters, Grammy award-winning The Travelin' McCourys, and Grammy-nominated and IBMA winners Special Consensus, they continue to draw upon their peers, and the pickin’ parties they treasure hosting together, for the constant evolution and honing of their craft.