Yonder Mountain String Band – Town By Town

From the hippie-infested hills of Nederland, Colorado, comes Yonder Mountain String Band, purveyors of “Colorado’s Nakedest Bluegrass.” With Town By Town, the band’s second studio disc (there’s a live record as well), the hard-touring foursome seems poised for success.

Produced by genre guru Tim O’Brien, who sits in on fiddle and bouzouki, Town By Town features mandolinist Jeff Austin, upright bassist Ben Kaufman, guitarist Adam Aijala and banjoist Dave Johnston on fourteen originals written by various members of the outfit. The instrumental interplay is as tight as it needs to be — check out the trading of the melody on Aijala’s instrumental “Wildewood Drive” — and the vocals aren’t quite as intimidatingly high or lonesome as old-school, which should appeal to the band’s chronological contemporaries looking for something cool and acoustic. The breezily poignant lyrics tend to be personal reflections recited from pastoral settings, which just about nails Nederland perfectly.