Yonder NYE Preview

12:00 AM, Fri, Dec 21 2007

THE MIX
LOCAL SCENE
COLORADO DAILY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2007

By DUSTIN HUTH
For the Colorado Daily

Q: What do progressive
bluegrass innovators,
Yonder
Mountain String
Band and an 8-foottall
street-hustling
pimp have in common?

A: They will both be
throwing a giant hoedown
on Colfax this Dec. 29, 30 and
New Year's Eve.

The Colorado-groomed musicians
will rock the hoe-down at The
Fillmore Auditorium, in Denver, to
celebrate the amazing accomplishments
of 2007. They will also welcome
in 2008 -- the year in which
YMSB will celebrate its 10th anniversary
as a band. They will be playing
next Friday, with special guest G Love,
who will open with a rare acoustic
performance. Then, Dec. 30, they
will have the opening support of The
Wailers. Both of these nights YMSB
will be joined by long-time musical
friend, Darol Anger on fiddle. Finally,
on New Year's Eve, the four boys will
bring it back to the basics: a mandolin,
a banjo, a bass and a guitar. An
evening with Yonder.

"We said, maybe we should step
into next year -- because next year's
our 10th anniversary -- maybe we
should step into next year with, 'Here
we are...this is us, right now at this
point'." said Jeff Austin, singer and
mandolin player for the band.
"Going into 2008, this is what we
sound like.' It's a neat trend that I
think could really grab hold, and we
could keep doing them like this."
Yonder Mountain String Band
  -- affectionately referred to as,
"Yonder," by its fans, has found itself
at the epicenter of the touring and
live-music-addicted subculture, playing
festival after festival and touring
relentlessly. Yonder has a large cult
following, where many fans travel
across the country to see 70 to 100
shows over a couple years. Much in
the vein of The Grateful Dead, Phish,
Widespread Panic and the String
Cheese Incident, Yonder has pied-pipered
its way into the jam-band
scene. But the weird thing is that
these guys play a mandolin, a banjo,
a bass and a guitar...and most of it
is acoustic, no less!

Austin said with the Internet
Go Yonder on New Year's Eve
music scene these days, people have
a more "openness of the ears."
"I think it's just the growth of the
way that people listen to music,"
Austin said. "Especially with the
Internet -- you don't just have to
eat what you're fed. You can kind of
dine everywhere. You can be like,
'Who the hell is Matisyahu?' 'Who
the hell are The Disco Biscuits' ....
'Who is Andrew Bird?'"

Modesty is a dying virtue these
days, but it's one that Austin seems to
have in spades. Sure, the audience
has stepped it up a notch and is using
technology to seek out music that
appeals to their sensibilities -- but,
that implies there is a much larger
pool of music for fans to spend listening
hours and concert dollars,
thereby making it more difficult for
a band to achieve a devoted following.
So, in other words, a lot of people
have had access to a lot of music,
and when push comes to shove, they
want to see Yonder doing it up bluegrass
style.

It makes sense. Especially this
time of year, because there's something
about bluegrass music that feels
like home, family and friendship,
thick as blood. Good old music that
brings it back to what's really important.
A banjo and a mandolin, and
everybody gathered 'round, stomping
their boots to keep the rhythm,
and maybe Papa even takes the old
fiddle out of the trunk. Mama leaves
the dishes 'til morning and dances
with her dress pulled up over her
knickers like the devil may care, and
ain't nobody gonna care about nothing
nohow, 'cause there's pie on the
table, a kettle on the stove and plenty
of firewood to last until the spring
thaw.

And it also makes sense that in
the frozen, late-night hours of
December, after the music has
stopped, there would be a lot for a
bluegrass man like Jeff Austin to
think about... a lot to appreciate,
and he does.

"It's gotta be the Red Rocks experience,"
said Austin after being asked
about Yonder's biggest accomplishment
of 2007. There was definiteness
in his voice that felt like he had spent
a lot of time replaying the moment.
"You know, next year is going to be
our 10th anniversary, and to go in
there and see it blow up like it did ...
to stand backstage with the promoters
of that show -- which are the
same guys that promoted our first
time we ever headlined the Fox
Theater -- and to have them almost
look at you like they're your dad,
with tears in their eyes, and they're
going, 'Holy shit, you guys.' You
know, 'Oh my god, there's almost
ten thousand people out there, and
there's a couple hundred people in
the parking lot who don't have tickets.'
That was the highlight of the
career so far."

Austin thought for a moment,
and then added, "That, and we spend
a lot of time in a metal tube riding
around the country together, spending
time away from people that mean
a lot to us, or dogs that we love --
in my case -- and we're getting
along better than we ever have, and
just the emotion amongst the band
mates, and the crew and the positivity
and the outlook for the year
upcoming, is definitely a strong second.
The health of the band is really
on a high...and that's really important
stuff."

It is especially important,
because Yonder Mountain String
Band has some extremely ambitious
plans for 2008.

"Next year we're going to be
doing a 10th anniversary tour that's
going to take us to some venues that
are just going to be awesome -- just
awesome!" Austin said, with the
words coming out faster and faster.
"And we're going to get to do this
cool outdoor tour in the summer of
these cool little sheds and amphitheaters,
and we've got such cool things
planned, and the best was we just
released this tour and I had friends
from around the country calling,
'What are you doing, not coming?' It's
like, 'It's a long year, dude, we're
coming'. Everybody just be patient,
jeez, it's Christmas!" he laughed.

Austin said he and the band are
also already starting preproduction
on a new studio record, which will
start in January.
"We've already been invited back
to do another Red Rocks [show],
which is just going to be...the fact
that that happens, I remember the
first year we got invited back to do
Telluride, and now next year is our
9th Telluride. It's like, how did all of
this happen?"

However, it can all get confusing
at times. All of this action, playing and
planning, and playing with this guest,
and that guest, and guesting with this
band or that band, and working on
side projects with Brendan Bayliss of
Umphrey's McGee, and festival after
festival. It's easy for a band to lose
itself. And that's why the last night of
the year, Yonder Mountain String
Band will, for the first New Year's
Eve in a while, appear simply as
Yonder Mountain String Band.
"People keep asking, and, no...
nobody's going to be announced at
the last minute. It's just going to be
the four of us, all alone, with way
too much time on our hands," said
Austin.
"I think some bands have guests
too often, and it can cloud the identity
of who the band actually is,"
explained Austin. "But, I don't know,
in part I can't really say that because
the fella who's playing with us, this
guy, Darol Anger, I mean, I feel like
I could play music with him every
day, and I would always gain a new
experience from it, like I gain from
the guys that I'm in the band with full
time."

In closing, and to set the tone
for the shows, Austin issued some
advice for anyone who plans to
attend.
"Eat your Wheaties on the 31st,
you know, stretch out, God help us,"
he said.
Because it's going to be one hell
of a giant hoedown.