{"id":2452629,"date":"2019-12-26T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=317974"},"modified":"2019-12-26T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T23:00:00","slug":"yonder-mountain-string-band-preps-for-new-years-eve-concert-in-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/yonder-mountain-string-band-preps-for-new-years-eve-concert-in-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"Yonder Mountain String Band preps for New Year\u2019s Eve concert in Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Yonder Mountain String Band will headline the Wheeler Opera House on New Year’s Eve.<\/strong>
Derek Yurkiewicz<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Yonder Mountain String Band<\/a> is saying goodbye to a somber 2019 and looking ahead to the 2020s, as the beloved Colorado bluegrass band prepares to headline the Wheeler Opera House on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s co-founder Jeff Austin, who left Yonder Mountain in 2014, died suddenly in June at age 45. The band, its fans and the progressive bluegrass community paid tribute to Austin last month in a benefit concert at the 1st Band Center in Broomfield.<\/p>\n

The show brought out seemingly everybody from the bluegrass scene that Yonder Mountain has flourished in since its founding in 1998. Railroad Earth and Leftover Salmon were there, the Infamous Stringdusters and the Travelin\u2019 McCourys, Bill Nershi and Noam Pikelny, Hot Rise and Sam Bush.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt good to be welcomed on-stage in the manner that we were,\u201d Yonder Mountain banjo player Dave Johnston said in a recent phone interview from home in Boulder. \u201cIt had a lasting, positive imprint on me. I think Yonder Mountain String Band might have been more important than any of the four of us could possibly have desired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin, he believes, would have been gratified by the night\u2019s performances from his music community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible circumstances, under which you come to those realizations,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cBut I think Jeff wouldv\u2019ve been happy to know the impact he was a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Austin left the band, Yonder Mountain chose to evolve \u2013 to try out some more traditional bluegrass configurations than its experimental early years, and some more structured songwriting, evidenced on its 2015 album \u201cBlack Sheep\u201d and 2017\u2019s \u201cLove. Ain\u2019t Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston said the band\u2019s creative process has shifted to focus on songcraft to build on its improvisatory roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the wonderful and awful things about the original band was that you never knew what was going to happen from measure to measure,\u201d Johnston said with a laugh. \u201cEveryone was freestyling everything. \u2026 What was lucky was that you could count on everyone, more or less, to help you have a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve hung onto the curiosity and the creative spark of those wild early years, while reining in some of the chaos. As they\u2019ve matured and membership has evolved, they have tried to hang onto that freewheeling spirit while imposing some structure on the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve found a way for the seat-of-the-pants parts fo the project to come out, and for us to refine it in the more structured part,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

For the New Year\u2019s Eve show, of course, they\u2019re planning a big and crowd-pleasing set that builds up to midnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll bets are off,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cWe have some things in the works that are not the usual. And a big part of having a successful New Year\u2019s show is to have a set list that is going to connect with people and have an upward motion, an uplifting element.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Yonder Mountain plays Aspen regularly, the holiday show marks the band\u2019s first time back at the Wheeler since the old days of the 7908 Songwriter Festival, when they jammed with John Oates. They\u2019ve made Belly Up their Aspen venue in the years since.<\/p>\n

And while much has changed for Yonder Mountain, the band\u2019s brilliant knack for playing far-flung cover songs remains the same. Recent shows have included five-part bluegrass arrangements of Lou Reed\u2019s \u201cWalk on the Wild Side\u201d and Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cMisty Mountain Hop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding covers is an alchemical process for the band. When they connect with a song \u2013 no matter the genre \u2013 they know they can make it work in a string-band arrangement.<\/p>\n

These songs, they have an emotional resonance with all of us, in one way or another, so they\u2019re easy to pick,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s just some component that is mysterious and cool and magical. \u2026 We know a cover song is going to stick around when everybody feels that way about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead at the 2020s, Johnston said the band\u2019s devoted fans should expect big things from Yonder Mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we are on the cusp of a creative breakthrough,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been writing constantly. There\u2019s definitely a lot of new music that is starting to percolate, and I\u2019d like to get cracking on some stuff to get it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yonder Mountain String Band will headline the Wheeler Opera House on New Year’s Eve.Derek Yurkiewicz Yonder Mountain String Band is saying goodbye to a somber 2019 and looking ahead to the 2020s, as the beloved Colorado bluegrass band prepares to headline the Wheeler Opera House on New Year\u2019s Eve. The band\u2019s co-founder Jeff Austin, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 00:02:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}