{"id":189,"date":"2011-01-14T14:20:33","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T22:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/?p=189"},"modified":"2015-01-12T09:31:55","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T17:31:55","slug":"howd-they-miss-that-the-infamous-stringdusters-spread-bluegrass-jams-tonight-at-the-independent-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/2011\/01\/howd-they-miss-that-the-infamous-stringdusters-spread-bluegrass-jams-tonight-at-the-independent-in-san-francisco\/","title":{"rendered":"How’d They Miss THAT?: The Infamous Stringdusters spread bluegrass jams tonight at The Independent in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"

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?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Infamous Stringdusters perform tonight at The Independent. (via Sugar Hill Records)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> out of Nashville, a group of seasoned bluegrass musicians who combined forces in 2007.<\/p>\n

The sextet certainly brings a list of accolades with it to tonight’s show at The Independent<\/a>: In 2007 the International Bluegrass Music Association<\/a> 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<\/a>; and they’re up for Best Country Instrumental Performance at this year’s Grammy Awards<\/a>. Plus the show is sure to go over well in the city that begat the Grateful Dead.<\/p>\n

Not to mention the fact that they’re more than famous. They’re IN-famous.<\/p>\n

Yes, that was a “Three Amigos” reference. Deal with it.<\/p>\n