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Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Bands. I'm Shecky,
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and today's episode begins with two essential
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facts. Fact one. Billy Strings, the reigning
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superstar of bluegrass music, the guy selling
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out red rocks for multiple nights running, once
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told Drew Emmett of Left Over Salmon that he
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was quote, my other son. Billy Strings said that
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to Drew Emmett. Fact two. The genre Leftover
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Salmon invented is called Polyethnic Cajun Slam
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Grass. I didn't make that up. They did. It's
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exactly as wonderful as it sounds. Today we're
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talking about Leftover Salmon, the Rolling Stones
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of Jam Grass, the band that accidentally invented
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a genre on a drive to Crested Butte on New Year's
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Eve 1989. And they spent the next 35 years plus
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refusing to stop. This is their story and it
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starts with some leftover fish. The year is 1985.
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Vince Herman had just driven from Morgantown,
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West Virginia to Boulder, Colorado in search
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of what he himself called the mythical bluegrass
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scene. He walks into a bar his first night in
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town. The sun in the door said live bluegrass
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music tonight. He walks in. On stage is Drew
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Emmett playing with his band, Left Hand String
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Band. Herman stays. He and Emmett hit it off
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immediately. Over the next few years Emmett keeps
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playing with the Left Hand String Band, a progressive
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bluegrass outfit he had remade through his desire
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to combine rock and roll with bluegrass. While
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Herman eventually forms his own group, the Salmonheads,
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a Cajun and Calypso -obsessed combo, fiddles
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and washboards, and the specific energy of a
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band that is having more fun than anyone has
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the right to have. Then comes New Year's Eve,
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1989. The Salmonheads have a big gig booked in
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Crested Butte. About half the band decides they
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don't want to make the drive through the Colorado
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mountains in winter, which is fair, but it leaves
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Herman short. He
Load full transcript
calls Emmett, he calls Glenn
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Keefe, from the left -hand string band, they
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agree to fill in, five musicians pile into a
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vehicle and start driving toward the mountains.
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Somewhere on that drive, the question comes up,
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what do we call this thing? The Salmon Heads
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plus left -hand string band. Two fish, two bands,
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one name needed urgently before they arrived
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at the venue. And by the time they pulled up
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to the Eldo in Crested Butte, they had it. Leftover
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Salmon. The leftover parts of two bands merged
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into one name, heading into a New Year's Eve
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show that would accidentally change the course
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of Colorado music history. As the Colorado Music
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Hall of Fame later noted, a sense of humor was
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a constant, beginning with its formation in 1989.
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The sense of humor never left. Leftover Salmon
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added electric guitars and drums to the Bluegrass
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and Cajun foundation. and they label the result
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polyethnic Cajun slamgrass, a genre name that
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simultaneously satirizes the music's critics'
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need to categorize everything and signals to
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listeners that this band will go anywhere, play
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anything, and have a great time doing it. The
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Colorado Music Hall of Fame called it a phrase
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that at once satirizes the desire of critics
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to put every act into a pigeonhole exactly right.
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They earned a slot on the H -O -R -D -E festival
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tour, the traveling festival that in the 1990s
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was the most important stage for emerging jam
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and alternate acts in America. A Hollywood Records
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deal followed. Their 1997 album Euphoria and
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99's Nashville Sessions featuring Lucinda Williams,
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Taj Mahal, Del Macquarie, and Bella Fleck to
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find the peak of their commercial reach. More
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than 2 ,000 shows a year, festival headliners
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a following that called itself family. My one
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song for Leftover Salmon is High Country from
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the 2014 album of the same name. High Country
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is the song that does what only the best leftover
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salmon material does. It puts you somewhere specific.
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You hear it and you're in Colorado. Not a postcard
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Colorado, real Colorado. The altitude, the distance
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between things, the feeling of standing somewhere
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vast with the sky pressing down from above and
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the mountains pressing up from below. Emmett's
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mandolin and fiddle work has that quality, rooted
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in bluegrass tradition reaching towards something
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larger. Live, High Country is a launching pad.
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The fiddle and mandolin intro gives way to full
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band improvisation that can stretch in any direction.
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Bluegrass, rock, cajun, calypso, whatever the
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night calls for. Reviewers constantly describe
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it as the moment in Leftover Salmon set, everything
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they are gets distilled into a single piece of
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music. Start here, then go find Rivers Rising,
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Zombie Jamboree, Ask the Fish, and the whole
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Nashville Sessions album, then go find a live
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show. Alright, some things worth noting about
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Leftover Salmon. As I mentioned, they played
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over 200 shows a year at their peak. During the
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height of their touring in 1990s and early 2000s,
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Leftover Salmon played more than 200 shows per
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year. At that pace, you'd either become a great
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band or you collapse. They became a great band.
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The Nashville Sessions featured Lucinda Williams,
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Taj Mahal, Bella Fleck, and Del Macquarie. Their
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1999 Hollywood Records album, brought together
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some of the most respected names in Americana
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and Bluegrass in a single collection. That guest
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list is a who's who of the genre's royalty, all
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of them showing up because they wanted to play
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with leftover Simon. Lastly, Andy Thorne relit
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the spark. After the hiatus and years of searching
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for the right chemistry, a young banjo player
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from North Carolina named Andy Thorne sat in
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around 2010 and immediately felt right. PBS NewsHour
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reported the spark was re -lit instantly. Thorne
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had been the band's banjoist ever since. The
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stool found its third leg. Here's what I keep
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on coming back to with Leftover Salmon. They
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named themselves on a drive to a gig because
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half their band didn't want to make the trip.
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They invented a genre and gave it the most ridiculous
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name they could think of. They played over 200
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nights a year for more than a decade. They lost
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their third leg, Mark Vann, and the stool wobbled
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for years before Andy Thorne walked in and studied
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it again. Billy Strings calls Drew Emmett dad.
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String Cheese and Yonder Mountain call themselves
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inspiration. and 35 years plus after that New
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Year's Eve in Crested Butte, they're still playing
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a hundred headline shows a year. Rolling Stones
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of Jamgrass, the Grandfathers of Slamgrass, the
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accidental architects of an entire genre, all
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of it starting with a band name cobbled together
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in a car because some musicians didn't want to
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drive through the mountains. Find High Country
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Find the Nashville Sessions. Find any live recording
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from any era. There are decades of them. And
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if Leftover Salmon is playing anywhere near you,
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and at 100 shows per year, they probably are,
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bring someone who's never heard them before.
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Watch their face when the fiddle and electric
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guitar and banjo all find each other at the same
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moment. That expression is what polyethnic Cajun
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slam grass looks like from the outside. It looks
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like joy. That's Leftover Simon. That's Shecky's
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Jam Bands. Thank you for listening and we'll
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see you next time.