How’d They Miss THAT?: The Infamous Stringdusters spread bluegrass jams tonight at The Independent in San Francisco
It’s perfectly understandable. There’s so much music happening in the Bay Area in any given week, and the mainstream and alternative publications have so much to cover with a limited amount of space and resources, that there’s bound to be at least one concert that deserves a shout-out but didn’t get any press. This humble blog feature is the consolation prize. This is … How’d They Miss THAT?
I guess I hadn’t fully realize that the same dread-sporting, doobie-smoking crowd that enjoys jam bands is also all about bluegrass until I attended a concert by Michigan’s Greensky Bluegrass in Metro Detroit in 2009. It makes sense. Bluegrass is built on a similar framework of improvisation and grooves. There are bluegrass festivals all over with on-site camping, which them dang hippies seem to like for some reason.
Veteran jam bands including String Cheese Incident clearly demonstrate bluegrass influences, but that’s different from groups whose music is definitively in the old-timey, acoustic mode. Among this new crop of traditionalist string bands is The Infamous Stringdusters out of Nashville, a group of seasoned bluegrass musicians who combined forces in 2007.
The sextet certainly brings a list of accolades with it to tonight’s show at The Independent: In 2007 the International Bluegrass Music Association named them the Emerging Artist of the Year and sent them home with two more awards; their latest release for Sugar Hill Records was No. 1 on Pop Matters’ list of the best bluegrass albums of 2010; and they’re up for Best Country Instrumental Performance at this year’s Grammy Awards. Plus the show is sure to go over well in the city that begat the Grateful Dead.
Not to mention the fact that they’re more than famous. They’re IN-famous.
Yes, that was a “Three Amigos” reference. Deal with it.
- What: The Infamous Stringdusters Arann Harris & the Farm Band.
- When: 9 p.m. today, Jan. 14. Doors at 8:30 p.m.
- Where: The Independent, 628 Divisadero St., San Francisco. 415-771-1421.
- Cost: $12-$14.
- Ticket link.
