Saturday, August 17, 2019

New Mountain Music

UPDATED: February 12, 2020


New Mountain Music
Available on Line
by Jamie Jobb

There’s no role for critics on a front porch.”
Michael Johnathon, song farmer

Haunted Windchimes is one of many modern mountain bands pushing boundaries of bluegrass in the 21st Century. Someone curious can really get lost looking into these groups on line, but somehow they’ll begin to find you once you start looking for them. More than a few local musicians sense a renaissance among young players inspired by other young artists on You Tube to bend-and-blend musical styles. Here’s a listing of stringed quintets mostly, which base and bounce their sound off a bluegrass foundation:

Shook Twins – seriously talented singer/songwriter sisters originally from Idaho, now based in Portland.
Follow their live shows:

I’m With Her – three songwriters harmonize around angelic bluegrass roots
Tiny Desk Concert:

The Wailin’ Jennys – Canadian-based singer songwriters steeped in powerhouse melodies.
Check out their a cappella chops here:

The Be Good Tanyas – bluesy trio of folky frontwomen based out of Vancouver.

Lindsay Lou and The Flatbellys – neck-and-neck with Windchimes as best shoeless string band:
One of several good videos

Infamous Stringdusters - hybrid improv bluegrass band and country string quintet.
Subscribe to them on You Tube:

Steep Canyon Rangers – Steve Martin’s go-to string band.
Subscribe to them on You Tube:

Railsplitters – unconventional classical-attuned bluegrass from Boulder:
Woodruff Laputka’s wonderful You Tube video:
From their own You Tube channel:

Ragged Union – hard-core bluegrass with modern twisted lyrics based in Golden Colorado:

Trout Steak Revival - Colorado Americana bluegrass, and Big Mountain Music

Mr. Sun - jazz-inspired bluegrass led by legendary fiddler Darol Anger.

Punch Brothers - stratospherically talented and tightly composed string quintet

Nickel Creek - progressive high-octane bluegrass from Vista California

Hawktail – Virtuoso compositional folky jazzgrass, spiced with nimble melodic bass.

Iron & Wine – Sam Beam’s cinematically stylistic songs
Pitchfork Live Session:

Rising Appalachia – pair of well-traveled sisters find justice in their southern roots-and-string

Appalachian Road Show – throwback gospel-tinged fingerpickin’ bluegrass from them hills and hollers.
The Deadly Gentlemen – tuneful country gents with signature traditional twang
Their YouTube channel showcases their diversity:

Crooked Still – “defiantly non-traditional bluegrass” quintet … with cello!
Live set at 2011 Gray Fox Bluegrass Festival:

Elephant Revival - gypsy roots tunes from Nederland Colorado

Alhambra Valley Band - urban bluegrass from rural Contra Costa County shoreline in California. Celebrated local pickers since 1986.

Steep Ravine - from the mountains of Marin through Santa Cruz. Catch them all over the Bay Area.

Front Country - Bay Area band sounds like it’s from Colorado. Winners at RockyGrass/Telluride festivals.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrpynnrICHZrvbwKlk8DIw

Mandolin Orange – traditional bluegrass bottled in a dynamic duo
That Cadillac came, gave our girl a ride”

Milk Carton Kids – dynamic virtuoso guitar duo and low-key comedians masquerading as Paul & Art
Full concert at Lincoln Theatre
Kruger Brothers – traditional bluegrass without fiddle, bass or mandolin

The Devil Makes Three – cross-country trio from Vermont, California and Texas.

Show Ponies - independent folkers inspired by legend of Huck Finn and longin’ for new quintet territory.

Tumbleweed Wanderers - four-piece busker band staging soulful rock.

Family Crest - seven-piece big band with 400 cohorts for complex pop tunes rearranged.

Flatt Lonesome - newgrass band featuring three siblings from Murfreesboro Tennessee. Flatt beauty to the ears: the other mountain music.  

Jeff Brown and Still Lonesome - bandleader commands stellar lineup of Appalachian string wizards.

The Idle Time Band - solid traditional bluegrass group with authentic harmonies and rolling strings.

Hackensaw Boys - former buskers, now funky jugless Virginia goofball jug band.  

The Brothers Comatose – widely touring gospel country rollocking string quintet
You Tube channel (“people from the city do not do this”):

Whiskey Shivers – diversely talented Texas tunesmiths and jug-punk party band.

Poor Man’s Whiskeylively Northern California bluegrass rockers, with percussion.
PMW You Tube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSYURTzUizVwvkAb183wP5Q

Bad Ridge - forward-looking bluegrass from deep Virginia hollers
Mipso - Carolina string band with progressive/rural hybrid vigor

Sam Bush Band – Kentucky-centric string masters led by mandolin licks of Sam himself.

Avett Brothers - rocky North Carolina roots-and-string band fronted by a pair of brilliant songwriting brothers

Blind Pilot - soulful six-piece American roots band with Latin jazz folk rock show tune sensibilities played on an odd assemblage of string, percussion, keyboard, and horn parts. Fine harmonies and deep lyrics too.

Henhouse Prowlers – Dexterous Chicago-based world-roaming bluegrass ambassadors

Crooked Still - “A defiantly non-traditional bluegrass quintet”
YouTube channel:

The Slick Skillet Serenaders – versatile NOLA-based vaudeville busker/kazoo band

Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra – tight-knit big-band high-octet bluegrass from Norway!
Their YouTube:

The SteelDrivers - Nashville-based powerhouse bluesy bluegrass quintet with a distinct jazz country tinge.

The Wood Brothers – pair of country/folk genius brothers, with backup
Their YouTube:

The Rayo Brothers – multi-talented Deep South string quartet steeped in bluesy roots.

The Waterboys – deep rooted highland Raggle-Taggle Celtic acoustic folk rockers.
Fisherman’s Blues/Room to Roam:

The Cleverlys - perhaps the most cleverest bluegrass stand-up cover-band we know. Seriously funny and fantastic pickers:

Soggy Bottom Boys – fictitious bluegrass band from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

SEE NEW MUSIC ON LINE … with these great series:

Gondola Sessions, terrific series recorded to take advantage of studio acoustics inside a ski-lift cabin:



NPR Tiny Desk Concerts: https://www.youtube.com/user/nprmusic


NOTE:
This list has been updated and was originally published as a sidebar to this 2015 entry:

More about Haunted Windchimes:

Haunted Windchimes posted this backwoods video for “Pine Six String”:

[local version originally published in The Martinez Tribune - 4 September 2015]


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