It seems that rarely a few months go by that we don’t come upon some new group of extremely talented young bluegrass artists doing something interesting in our music.
For August, we have The Mountain Grass Unit, a three piece band from Birmingham, AL who have made some serious strides while still in their teens. In only four years together, they have two EP releases, the latest, Places I’ve Been, with eight original songs written within the band.
The Unit consists of Drury Anderson on mandolin, Luke Black on guitar and banjo, and Sam Wilson on bass. All three sing with Drury handling most of the lead vocals.
These young men play and sing quite well, in a modern, almost jamgrass style, but it is the songwriting that really sets them apart from others of their generation. Listen to this song from their EP, Shay’s Rebellion, which shows that Mountain Grass Unit have a strong grasp on early US history as well as contemporary bluegrass.
The other seven songs on Places I’ve Been are strong as well, avoiding the sort of cliches that inexperienced songwriters often employ.
Mountain Grass Unit performs mostly around Birmingham at this point, but they will be in Nashville this Saturday (8/6/22) at the Nectar Urban Cantina from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Well worth a listen there, or anywhere you might find them live.
