Show Review

When I first saw Yonder Mountain String Band at the 2000 Berkshire Music Festival, I felt transported to a Beatles concert trying to decide who my favorite band member was. Since that show (and particularly since the band’s beginnings the year before) a seemingly short six years, the road the band is traveling has been filled with many summits and few, if any valleys.

Playing mostly original and traditional songs, but including funky covers, sometimes even of that famous ‘60’s foursome mentioned above, such as “Come Together” “I’m Only Sleeping” and “Only a Northern Song,” while revamped with their unique version of newgrass, the band’s love for the music is always evident. Touring this winter, Yonder has raised the “heat” of the annual Cabin Fever Tour by inviting special guests in their shows that include the Del McCoury Band, Keller Williams, Futureman of the Flecktones and moe.

The show at Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg, Florida was one of the dates Yonder shared with the Del McCoury Band, as the two groups alternated the opening and closing of their sets at different venues. Comprised of Adam Ajala on Guitar, Jeff Austin on mandolin, Dave Johnston on banjo and Ben Kauffman on bass; the Yonder foursome started the show a few minutes before 8:00 p.m. with a highly spirited “Hill Country Girl,” a cut on their 2003 album Old Hands. Jeff stated that the band had been in town a couple of days and spending some time shopping while showing off his new black framed spectacles. To the audience’s laughter, Jeff elaborated that he has entered his “Poindexter Period,” before playing “Idaho” off of 2001’s Town By Town.

Dedicating the next tune to all the crazy women in the audience (who screamed their excitement) they launched into “Naughty Sweetie.” Ben thanked his friend Jim in the audience who gave him his first upright bass when he was a young kid, before beginning “Maid o’ the Canyon” and “Steep Grade, Sharp Curves.” Jeff commented that it was nice to be playing their first outdoors show of 2005, adding that if they played outside in February in their home of Colorado, “you guys would think less of us.” The Florida winter was t-shirt weather as they started into “Sometimes I’ve Won” and wrapping straight into “On the Run.”

Jeff kicked it up into a mando-frenzy on “Kentucky Mandolin,” as the kinfolk yelled and screamed at his high-stepping antics, before he once again assumed a serious, muse-channeling look. They launched into the Dylan standard “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” before playing “Years with Rose” and continuing into “Raleigh and Spencer” a traditional favorite. Yonder has a free download of the soundboard recording from last November’s show in Missouri available on their website and Yonder is featured as “April” on the 2005 jambase.com hanging wall calendar, with the proceeds going to Music In Schools Today.

After only a short break for equipment and front-rail fan changing, the chants of “Yonder, Yonder, Yonder, Yonder” finally died out as the Del McCoury Band, appeared on the stage to the flashing of the spotlight. Also riding “High on the Mountaintop, ”holding the current title of International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainer of the Year, in old bluegrass style, they grouped around not one, but two microphones and commenced jumping in and out of the front spots, beginning with “True Life Blues” (a Bill Monroe tune) and continuing with “Day Break in Dixie.”

The speed picked up a bit on “Loneliness &Desperation” with Del’s pinky rings sparkling almost as brightly as the lights, before continuing with “Pain in My Heart” and “Walkin Shoes” as the audience sang loudly along. Del’s son Ronnie, the mandolin player, announced that his mom and dad were celebrating their 41st anniversary as they launched into a Valentine’s Day song. Soon to follow, the band covered two more Bill Monroe classics “Wheel Hoss” and “Toy Heart, to the thunderous applause of the audience.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m., the young stars of the bluegrass scene literally jumped in to join the McCoury boys onstage, creating a musical cacophony with two banjos, three mandolins, one fiddle, two guitars and one upright bass (Ben switched his bass for a mandolin) still grouped in old style (but with a third microphone added). Yonder led the act with Jeff announcing a number they learned from banjo player Danny Barnes, calling him the second coming of John Hartford. Ben and Mike Bub then switched instruments for the old tune “Goin’ Where They Do Not Know My Name” before Del announced “we’re going to a dark holiday, one we’re going to pick” as the audience chorused along “blow your whistle freight train, I’m going away, I’m leaving today, I’ve leaving but I ain’t coming back,” with Jeff and Del alternating verses.

Del’s picking led off the next tune which wrapped into a song sung by Ben, “If you say that you love me, please don’t make me blue, you know that I love you and I’m not to blame.” While Del’s two year old granddaughter tried out her dancing feet at the side of the stage, the final selections, “Just Because” and “Cold Rain and Snow” only left the audience hankering for more, but with the time curfew of the open venue upon us, the loud repeated screams and yells elicited no response, and the crowd slowly quieted.

Photos by George Weiss