Performing bluegrass arrangements of Grateful Dead tunes since 1997

A few live recordings from different projects.  I hope you enjoy!

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 bluegrass. Alongside other neo-bluegrass friends, YMSB has thoroughly revitalized and contemporized the genre and introduced it to many thousands of new fans. Yonder Mountain String Band is comprised of Adam Aijala (guitar, vocals), Dave Johnston (banjo, vocals), Ben Kaufmann (bass, vocals), Allie Kral (violin, vocals), and Jacob Jolliff (mandolin, vocals).

“There’s this great duality to our band,” reflects Greensky Bluegrass mandolinist, vocalist, and songwriter Paul Hoffman. “We’re existing in a few different places at once: we’re a bluegrass band and a rock band, we’re song-driven and interested in extended improvisation.”

“We play acoustic instruments,” adds dobro player Anders Beck, “but we put on a rock’n’roll show. We play in bigger clubs and theaters, there’s a killer light show, and we’re as loud as your favorite rock band. It’s not easy to make five acoustic instruments sound like this – it’s something we’ve spent years working on.”

From these seemingly irreconcilable elements, the five members of Greensky Bluegrass have forged a defiant, powerful sound that, while rooted in classic stringband Americana, extends outwards with a fearless, exploratory zeal. The tension and release between these components – tradition and innovation, prearranged songs and improvisation, acoustic tones and electric volume – is what makes them so thrillingly dynamic, in concert and on record. “In theory,” Hoffman explains, “greensky is the complete opposite of bluegrass. So, by definition, we are contrasting everything that isn’t bluegrass with everything that is.”

Keep Moving....Slow music is for old people!

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psychesounds.tay@gmail.com

Larry Keel is an award-winning innovative flat picking guitarist and singer/songwriter hailing from the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. He absorbed the best lessons from his Bluegrass and Country music family upbringing, deeply steeped in the traditional mountain lifestyle and culture of the region. Out of that authentic roots background, Keel has forged a completely unique musical sound, integrating the highest level of sophistication and power on his instrument with the raw honesty and charming grit of his songwriting & singing. This captivating combination has earned him praise and widespread recognition around the world among fellow artists, fans and music reviewers. Del McCoury recorded Keel’s “Mountain Song” on his Grammy-winning ‘The Company We Keep Album’, Keel has collaborated and continues to merge creative forces with some of the greatest artists in modern roots music such as Tyler Childers, Billy Strings, Al DiMeola, Tony Rice, Keller Williams & Sam Bush, to name a few. 
Listen to One here: https://soundcloud.com/larry-keel/sets/one/s-s3RgC

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