YMSB Returns To Red Rocks, Release New Album At Telluride Bluegrass Festival

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND
w/ Greensky Bluegrass & Fruition

Friday, August 21st
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
On-Sale: Saturday, February 28th @ 10am
Tickets: $38.95 – $44.95 Adv. $45-$50 DoS
Purchase Here

Yonder Mountain String Band returns to Colorado this summer to the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre Friday August 21st. Yonder welcomes their good friends Greensky Bluegrass along with special guests Fruition. This hometown celebration comes on the heels of their latest release, Black Sheep, scheduled for national release on their own Frog Pad Records at Telluride Bluegrass Festival on June 16, 2015.

Pre-sale begins Wednesday February 25th at 10 AM MT. KBCO and AEG will host a pre-sale on Friday February 27th from 10 AM – 10 PM MT, and public on-sale begins Saturday February 28 also at 10 AM MT. Check out full show info and upcoming tour dates right here.

The first Yonder release produced by the band itself, Black Sheep is, by any measure, a triumph, perhaps the most mesmeric of their career. Joined by violinist Allie Kral and mandolin virtuoso Jacob Jolliff, Black Sheep marks the first time in Yonder’s history that they’re actually utilizing, throughout an entire record, the conventional five-piece instrumental arsenal of bluegrass introduced in the 1940s: guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle and bass. The result, says Kaufmann, is that, “This record sounds more like Yonder than any record we’ve ever done. I’m hoping that when people are finished listening to it, they’ll just hit play and listen to it again.”

With the exception of the album’s sole cover tune, “Ever Fallen In Love,” originally by the late ’70s British punk-rock band the Buzzcocks, each of the album’s new tracks were written by the YMSB members during the past couple of years. Three of the new songs — “Annalee,” “Landfall” and the title track — have already been road-tested on tour; others will be added to the band’s live repertoire following the album’s release. The majority of Black Sheep was recorded at Coupe Studios in Boulder, Colorado, with Adam handling much of the engineering at his home studio and on the road; the first time a band member has taken on that task.

Even on first listen, it becomes instantaneously apparent that Black Sheep is the work of a new Yonder Mountain String Band, one with a strong commitment to re-exhibiting itself, broadening its parameters following the departure of a founding member. While it’s immediately recognizable as YMSB music, there’s undeniably a raw aesthetic to the studio tracks—a sense of daring is embedded in both the instrumental interaction between these five singular players and in the lyrical content of each song.