Yonder Mountain String Band Loves Life on the Road
Words by Dan Rozman
Photos by Mark Raker

Yonder Mountain String Band recently brought their high-energy brand of progressive bluegrass to a sold-out house at The Hamilton Live. The beloved Colorado-based jamgrass quartet, featuring Adam Aijala (guitar, vocals), Ben Kaufmann (bass, vocals), Dave Johnston (banjo, vocals), and Nick Piccininni (mandolin, banjo, fiddle, vocals), were joined by fiddle player Coleman Smith for a foot-stomping, crowd-pleasing performance.

In a pre-show conversation at The Hamilton Live on Feb. 23, Aijala and Johnston gave some insight into Yonder’s song selection process, noting they “read the room” and try to provide a diverse mix of fast and slow songs to cater to different moods throughout the night.

They also discussed their busy touring schedule, having played 84 shows last year and on pace for at least that many in 2024. YMSB plays in all types of venues and festivals. They talked about how much they love coming to the DC area and enjoy playing at The Hamilton Live, with its “real sweet vibe.” They are reminded that there are “beautiful and wonderful people here in Washington.”

The acoustics and energy at The Hamilton are always great. The combination of the dancing area in the front and the bar areas combined with the seats, allow us to feed on the fan energy. While they love having fans up and dancing, Aijala said that even in seated only venues, “people can be sitting and having a great time, I can feel and see it.”

Despite the grueling road life, the band shows no signs of slowing down. “We like playing so let’s keep doing it,” Johnston said.

Before kicking off the show with classic track “Out of the Blue,” we were warned that they are in a “little bit of an interesting mood tonight and that it could bode really really well.” Throughout the almost two hour set, Yonder worked through fan favorites like “40 Miles from Denver,” “Pockets” and “Traffic Jam.”

Watch Yonder Mountain String Band perform “Traffic Jam” in 2016 via YouTube:

Other highlights were the feel-good singalong “All the Time” and the encore, a rousing take on The Band’s “Ooh La La.” Smith’s fiddle added richness and density to the evening. The jams when Piccininni put down his mandolin and started to fiddle with Smith will be remembered for a long time.

During the evening, we got several chances to “peak behind the curtain” whether it was talking about touring DC (a first for some of the folks) or the fact that Ben was wearing his black “jammy (sleeping) shirt” because they didn’t let the bus park on the street and he forgot to change out of it in the mere 45 seconds they had to get off and unload.

Opening the show was Baltimore-based progressive bluegrass outfit The Dirty Grass Players. The quartet, featuring Connor Murray on bass, Alex Berman on banjo, Ryan Rogers on mandolin, and Kyle Windbeck on guitar, played a diverse nine-song set mixing covers from artists like Lorde and the Grateful Dead along with originals like “Riptide” and “Pockets in Retrograde.” They can be seen locally at DelFest 2024 and other festivals before they begin their international tour.

Yonder will return to the mid-Atlantic twice more this year — Memorial Day weekend at DelFest in Cumberland, Maryland, sharing the bill with Old Crow Medicine Show, Leftover Salmon, and others. For those interested in lessons, Nick Piccininni will be one of the instructors at this year’s DelFest Academy. On July 6, Yonder Mountain returns to Wolf Trap for a show at The Filene Center with Railroad Earth and Leftover Salmon. It was an incredible night for Bluegrass lovers. Judging by this outstanding performance, their future shows are not to be missed.

Setlist for Yonder Mountain:

Out Of The Blue
Just The Same
40 Miles from Denver
Idaho
No Expectations
Don’t Lean On Me
Pockets
Insult
I’m Lost
Looking Back
All The Time
Bill Cheatham
Traffic Jam > I Need To Know > Traffic Jam
Encore: Ooh La La

Setlist for The Dirty Grass Players:

Royals by Lorde
Riptide (Original)
Cold Sheets of Rain by Randall Hylton
Mr. Charlie by The Grateful Dead
Nellie Kane by Tim O’Brien
Carlos (Original)
This Heart of Mine by New Grass Revival
Pockets in Retrograde (Original)
Shiny Side Up (Original)

Certain aspects of the research and/or drafting for this piece may have employed AI.

Here are some photos of The Dirty Grass Players performing at The Hamilton Live on Feb. 23, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Mark Raker.

Here are some photos of Yonder Mountain String Band performing at The Hamilton Live on Feb. 23, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Mark Raker.