#infamous stringdusters

Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude, family, and reflection, and what better way to enhance this festive spirit than with the warm sounds of bluegrass music? Rooted in American history, bluegrass embodies the essence of community and storytelling, making it the perfect soundtrack for this holiday.

Imagine gathering around the dinner table, the aroma of roasted turkey and pumpkin pie wafting in the air, as the lively strumming of banjos and the sweet tones of a fiddle fill the room. Bluegrass, with its rich harmonies and upbeat rhythms, invites everyone to share their stories and express their thanks. It’s a genre that celebrates life’s simple joys, much like the Thanksgiving tradition itself.

Whether it’s classic songs like “Molly and Tenbrooks” or modern renditions from artists like The Infamous Stringdusters, bluegrass can elevate your Thanksgiving gathering. So, this year, as you carve the turkey and raise a glass, let the vibrant notes of bluegrass music carry your hearts and minds to a place of gratitude and connection.

Song Review: Cris Jacobs feat. Lindsay Lou - “Work Song (I Can Still Sing)”

Cris Jacobs used the story of John Henry’s famous hammer to pound out “Work Song (I Can Still Sing).”

The lead single from One of These Days (April 26) features Lindsay Lou on vocals and combines the traditional story with a new melody as the duo sing fresh lyrics:

Long-hair woman, make that honey sweet/when I get home, I get home, I get home/gonna dance around the honeycomb

Members of the Infamous Stringdusters wrap Jacobs’ fingerpicked electric guitar in bluegrass instrumentation produced by Jerry Douglas. Call “Work Song (I Can Still Sing)” a bit of something old, something new, something borrowed, something bluegrass and a high-performance hybrid.

Grade card: Cris Jacobs feat. Lindsay Lou - “Work Song (I Can Still Sing)” - B

Album Review: Yarn - Born Blessed Grateful & Alive

With songs about living in the moment, celebrating life itself and being satisfied in oneself even when no one else is satisfied with you, Born Blessed Grateful & Alive is a collection of buoyant songs with an occasional anvil tied in to act as a counterweight.

And that Yarn frontman and songwriter Blake Christiana manages to stitch the 12 tracks together in a pastiche of blues, disco, country and gospel music just makes the listening experience that much more satisfying.

Life is short/but sweet if you make it, Christiana sings on the opening “Turn off the News,” as the band - augmented on the LP by liked-minded musicians including Infamous Sringdusters’ guitarist Andy Falco and singer Elliott Peck - channels Warren Haynes-era Allman Brothers.

Born Blessed Grateful & Alive gets its title from the wistful gospel ballad “These Words Alone,” which finds the narrator finding spiritual awakening after four days in a dingy motel. The subject of “Heart So Bad,” meanwhile, sings about all the people who left him - either by death or choice - to a disco beat; the juxtaposition is as fruitful as it is unexpected.

And so it goes across 45 minutes of honky-tonkin’ (“Something’s Gotta Change”), country-rockin’ (“Traveling Kind”) and soul music-stirrin’ (“Wake Up”). Keeping with the theme of connecting puzzle pieces that shouldn’t fit, Yarn meld the “City of New Orleans” melody with lyrical construction reminiscent of “Willin’” to create the hybrid “Nomad Man.”

I been in Nashville, Tennessee/Bourbon Street in New Orleans/but the only home I need is on the way, it goes.

Yarn defies categorization on its latest. But the threads of the band’s music are all there and woven into something unique in diversity and presentation.

Grade card: Yarn - Born Blessed Grateful & Alive - B

Album Review: Andy Falco & Travis Book - Falco & Book Play Jerry Garcia

Falco & Book Play Jerry Garcia finds Infamous Stringdusters Andy Falco and Travis Book playing the songs of Jerry Garcia.

Captain Trips, meet Captain Obvious.

Less obvious, though Sound Bites will tell you now, this is a live LP, one that sounds like a high-quality audience recording of guitarist Falco and bassist Book essentially recreating a six-song Jerry Garcia/John Kahn acoustic gig that never occurred.

And it’s splendid, highlighted with an unexpected, untethered improvisation in “Jack-A-Roe” and a “Morning Dew” set to the same slow-build, big-emotional-explosion arrangement the Grateful Dead of later years would play in an electric setting.

“Friend of the Devil” splits the difference between the Gratefuls’ acoustic and electric versions; “Birdsong,” “New Speedway Boogie” and “Ripple” round out the 45-minute set.

Now, when does set two begin?

Grade card: Andy Falco & Travis Book - Falco & Book Play Jerry Garcia - B+