The Freebird Live Café is a great Florida venue in Jacksonville Beach to see live music. The beautiful surroundings of the coast and the intimacy of the building make it unlike any other. Yonder Mountain String Band’s Annual Cabin Fever Tour made a stop here with supporting act of Tony Furtado. With a large number of local bluegrass fans eager for some music, the show sold out early with its limited number of tickets.
Tony Furtado, guitar and banjo player extraordinaire, opened the show with a rousing rendition of traditional, “Molly and Tenbrooks,” that displayed his unique voice and slide guitar abilities. His set consisted of a mixture of traditional tunes and originals, with him swapping ample time with between guitar and his legendary banjo skills. Furtado got the crowd pumped early with his blend of folk, blues, and bluegrass, and most were sure it wouldn’t be the last we’d see of Furtado that night.
Yonder Mountain String Band has developed quite a following throughout the United States with their blend of acoustic and bluegrass music. The root of this following stems from their high energy live shows, but the underlying draw is fuled by their charismatic personalities.
Opening with a great version of bassist, Ben Kaufmann’s, “Lord Only Knows (Part One),” that segued into a blistering version of guitarist, Adam Aijala’s, “Left Me in a Hole,” things kicked off from the start. Once the set took flight, Jeff Austin, mandolin player and lead vocalist, seemed to take center stage with his radiating stage presence and incendiary mandolin playing. To the delight of the band and crowd, sure enough Furtado came out to join the boys for most of the first set lending both guitar and banjo to the mix. The ensemble plowed right through old timey number, “Loneliness and Desperation,” which displayed some great banjo picking by Dave Johnston. Then, to close the first set, Yonder and Furtado dove into a mind-blowing version of Austin’s epic, “New Horizons.” They sandwiched a great rendition of John Hartford’s, “Natchez Whistle” in the middle to give their first glimpse of the great picking the crowd was in for the rest of the night.
After a quick set break, they came out with a smoking version of, “Freeborn Man,” which was fitting for the surroundings with its lyrics that reference “the southland.” It was only dwarfed by Aijala’s version of the crowd favorite, “Corona,” which displayed his great vocals and amazing flat-picking abilities. Furtado once again emerged from side stage, and Yonder proceeded to rip into a hot version of, “If You’re Ever in Oklahoma,” which included some great jams and vocal work by Austin. They even through in a take on the classic, “After Midnight,” which got the whole crowd moving.
A rousing collection of tunes which included “Cuckoo’s Nest” and ended with the blistering picking of the traditional, “Boatman” followed. But the Boys really showed their chops and unity on the last few songs which reflected how tight of a group they really are. At a little after 1:30 a.m., Yonder finally gave us a good night and sent the crowd off into the night with a “See ya’ll soon…”. For most it won’t be soon enough.
Photos by George Weiss
For more info see: yondermountain.com
