Yonder Mountain String Band: Growing Up and Dreaming Big | Concert Preview

photo by Joe O'Toole

[Editor’s note: This story previews Yonder Mountain String Band’s concert at Sumtur Amphitheater in Papillion on Friday. The show will start at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 advance and $25 day of show. More info here.]

by Jesse D. Stanek

Six times in 15 years: This is how many times I’ve interviewed Yonder Mountain String Band’s Jeff Austin.

Besides making me feel like an old man, the number reminds me of watching this little, scraggly bunch of Colorado kids stomping it out in seedy bars and second-rate venues. I reminisce as I look back on the band’s trajectory, from mountain kids picking bluegrass in barrooms to headlining Red Rocks and hosting their own multi-day outdoor festival.

When Yonder Mountain first hit the bluegrass scene, it was something fresh, something different. They were pickers who dug the improvisational spirit of The Grateful Dead and loved the spirit and tone of bluegrass music. Some of their earlier tunes such as “You Left Me In A Hole” and “40 Miles From Denver” serve as part of the evolution of newgrass music. The ferocious, yet somehow gentle energy of their original songs has not only come to define the Colorado newgrass scene but also to serve as a major influence.

“We just kind of hung on to that gut feeling of playing like it you want to hear it, sticking your neck out,” says Austin, who plays mandolin and sings in Yonder Mountain. “People always say that if Sam [Bush] and Bela [Fleck] and John Cowan hadn’t done it, somebody else would have.

“Yeah, but how cool is it that these guys did it?,” he continues. “If there is a Sam Bush in an alternate universe, he’s not as cool as this Sam Bush. Those guys have all been so cool and open with their friendship and talking about how the music has moved and is continuing to move.”

Yonder Mountain plays Sumtur Amphitheatre this Friday, August 9 at 6:30 p.m. (doors at 5:30). Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 day of show. More info here.

Yonder Mountain String Band – What the Night Brings from Live & Breathing on Vimeo.

“We love Omaha,” Austin says. “That’s where we always play right before we head home.”

The band’s roots in the sleepy mountain town of Nederland, Colo., have been critical for the band, just far enough from Boulder to be more frontier than an aspen Disneyland. With their start in 1998, Yonder Mountain began when Dave Johnston, Austin, Adam Aijala and Ben Kauffman took front-porch picking a step further. They received support early on from some of the Colorado powerhouses such as Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident, which helped raise their national profile and set the stage for what would become a grueling and wide-reaching tour schedule.

“I don’t think any of us knew this would end up like it has,” Austin says. “I knew I was willing to put in hard work to make these dreams happen. We started off playing those barrooms to 10 people and we dreamt about playing Red Rocks or playing an auditorium with Widespread Panic and we made it happen.

“I never once thought we’d get big and then be done. That’s stupid. I’m definitely grateful for where we are but also know we worked hard to get here.”

Jesse D. Stanek is a Hear Nebraska contributor. He's striving for eudaimonia, a contented state of being happy and healthy and prosperous.