About five and a half months ago I tucked into a tiny house backstage at Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots Festival with five juggernauts of roots music (and personal musical heroes of mine) and filmed a few, very guerrilla style, live performances of a few tunes. Today, those five artists officially announce the forming of the beyond genius bluegrass ensemble ‘Mighty Poplar‘.

The new all-star roots project features Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse, Noam Pikelny and Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers, bassist Greg Garrison (Leftover Salmon) and fiddler Alex Hargreaves (Billy Strings) today announced a record with 10 tracks that includes bluegrass and folk classics and a few deep cuts. A canvas stretched and painted with a combination of virtuosic abilities, tempered with the laid back nature of song swapping and late night festival jams. A perfect combination that has resulted in one of the most exciting records of recent memory.

The band’s take on the Martha Scanlan penned “Up on the Divide” is equal parts beautiful, sorrow sown reflection and buoyant, gold-infused vibrance. A true testament to the heart and pure soul that these five artists inject into this project.

You can pre-order the full record today (and you should) and in the meanwhile stream “Up on the Divide” on all major platforms. Get after it.