Greensky Bluegrass has made quite a name for themselves as a live act since winning the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest in 2006. They work a grueling schedule (more than 170 shows annually), and have a loyal following in the alt-bluegrass, jamgrass world.
Michael Arlen Bont is on banjo, Dave Bruzza on guitar, Michael Devol on bass, Paul Hoffman on mandolin, and Anders Beck on resonator guitar. For a band that lives on the road, and has built their reputation on live performance, it must have seemed like a no-brainer when the notion of releasing a series of live concerts on CD came up.
The debut, All Access Vol. 1, is a record of the band’s complete show from a November 27, 2009 concert at the Riviera Theatre in Three Rivers, MI. It’s a 2-CD set with a total of 26 tracks, most of them band originals.
Anders Beck offered a quick overview of what Greensky Bluegrass is about:
“It’s about the jams and the improvisation. Our live shows are where we are able to give our original songs a life of their own each night. Many of our songs are explored well in this latest show, as many of them stretch over the 10-15 minute mark.”
Dave Bruzza expanded a bit on that description…
“Along with the tradition of bluegrass, we all have lots of different musical influences that we bring to the table.”
You can see evidence of those statements in this track from the new CD, a song called Against The Days, which the band has agreed to let us stream here in its entirety. Enjoy.
Against The Days: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/against_the_days.mp3]
You can hear audio samples from All Access Vol. 1 at LiveDownloads.com, where you can also purchase the double CD or individual tracks. This new release, and the future editions in this series, will be available in limited CD pressings of only 1,000 units, which can be ordered from the band’s web site.
