Like many folks I had a roundabout way of fully immersing myself in the beautiful and bountiful genre of bluegrass music. Amid a haze of smoke and blacklight posters in my freshman college dorm room the music of Jerry Garcia with David Grisman, John Hartford and the seminal work of Yonder Mountain String Band carved my path to Bill Monroe, Del McCoury and Doc Watson. A path I am still forever grateful for those days.

Elevation was a constant for me. Friends and I sat around passing a “cigarette” and jamming along to ‘Half Moon Rising’, ‘Bolton Stretch’ and ’40 Miles to Denver’. The untimely loss of founding member Jeff Austin planted a seed for me to revisit this and other earlier YMSB records and unleashed a flood of love and nostalgia. Today the band announced the re-issue of that record to be available online and at the merch table as a 20th anniversary release.

 

 From the band: Falling in the middle of their 2019 fall tour, this September marked the 20th Anniversary of award­-winning Colorado bluegrass band, Yonder Mountain String Band’s critically acclaimed debut album, Elevation. Out of print for years and considered by decades-long fans to be the band’s career-defining album, it only seemed natural for YMSB to celebrate this milestone with a 20th-anniversary 180g double vinyl re-release. Originally released on the band’s own independent Frog Pad Records, Elevation features founding members Dave Johnston, Ben Kaufmann, Adam Aijala, and Jeff Austin, along with guest musicians Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Sally Van Meter, and Celeste Krenz. The 20th Anniversary release of Elevation is available now in limited quantities at the merch table and online.

Yonder is currently on tour extending through the end of November with Northeast stops in upstate NY, Rhode Island, Maine and Boston, a break in December and picking back up in the New Year. Go see ’em.