Yonder Mountain String Band

Founded in Nederland, Colorado in 1998, Yonder Mountain String Band is a progressive bluegrass group that is commonly classified as a ‘jamgrass’ band, which mixes the jam band genre with bluegrass music. The roots of the band stretch back to an Urbana, Illinois band called The Bluegrassholes, which featured banjo player Dave Johnston and vocalist / mandolinist Jeff Austin. The group split up and both Johnston and Austin relocated to Colorado. Initially Johnston moved to Boulder and Austin moved to Nederland, but the music connection between the two was still strong and Johnston eventually settled in Nederland. The duo recruited Ben Kaufmann (bass) and Adam Aijala (guitarist) and formed Yonder Mountain String Band. After becoming a popular live act, the group released their debut album, Elevation, in 1999. After the release of the albums Mountain Tracks: Volume 1 (2000) and Town by Town (2001), they finally achieved commercial success with Mountain Tracks: Volume 2 (2002), which reached number 11 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums chart. The quartet continued with triumphant live performances – including their own Yonder Mountain’s Harvest Festival – and released hit albums like 2003’s Old Hands, which hit number 5 on the Bluegrass Albums chart and number 54 on the Country Albums chart. The group hit number 1 on the Bluegrass charts with three successive albums: Yonder Mountain String Band (2006), Mountain Tracks: Volume 5 (2008) and The Show (2009). The group took a recording break, which saw the departure of founding member Jeff Austin in 2013 and the addition of Allie Kral (fiddle) and Jake Jolliff (mandolin) in 2015. After the hit albums Black Sheep (2015) and Love Ain’t Love (2017), Jacob Jolliff left the group in 2020 and was replaced by Nick Piccininni (mandolin / fiddle / banjo / vocals). Allie Kral departed in 2022, and Coleman Smith stepped in to play fiddle. Yonder Mountain String Band’s 2022 album Get Yourself Outside was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2023. The group returned in 2024 with the album Nowhere Next.

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