The evening of Thursday, February 4, 2016 turned into one hell of a hoedown (or hootenanny) as Yonder Mountain String Band brought their sweet progressive bluegrass music to The Plaza Live in Orlando. Support on the tour included special guest Keller Williams and one of his many projects, Keller & The Keels, a bluegrass project consisting of Williams and the husband and wife combo of Larry and Jenny Keel.

This was a special night on the tour as it was Keller Williams’ birthday! About halfway through his set, the crowd starting singing Happy Birthday which was a nice spontaneous surprise. Later during Yonder’s set, Keller was brought out on stage for a few songs, but first Yonder had the audience sing Happy Birthday as Jenny Keel brings out a candle-filled Oreo cake. After blowing out the candles, Keller eats an Oreo from the cake, gets dry mouth, plays “Black Sheep” with Yonder, and then recommends that Ben not eat an Oreo until after the set.

Keller played a set that was filled with several originals, including my Keller favorite “Freaker By The Speaker,” and featured several covers including “The Year 2003 Minus 25” (Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson cover, written by Kris Kristofferson)), “Rebels” (Tom Petty), “Switch and the Spur” (The Raconteurs), “Teen Angst” (Cracker), “Miss Ferris” (John Hartford), “Brown-Eyed Women” (Grateful Dead), and the last song of the set, “Don’t Cuss the Fiddle” (Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson cover, written by Kris Kristofferson).   

Watch the full set below (1 hour and 12 minutes of goodness!), thanks to The Sober Goat!

Hailing from Colorado, Yonder Mountain String Band is composed of Dave Johnston (banjo/vocals), Ben Kaufmann (bass/vocals), Adam Aijala (guitar/vocals), Allie Kral (violin/vocals), and Jacob Joliff (mandolin/vocals). For nearly 17 years, Yonder Mountain String Band has redefined bluegrass music, expanding the traditional acoustic genre beyond its previously established boundaries by steadily pushing the envelope into the realms of rock n’ roll and improvisation. Their latest album, Black Sheep (released on their own Frog Pad Records at Telluride Bluegrass Festival on June 16, 2015), begins a new era. The album is the first YMSB release produced by the band itself and is a compelling accomplishment in their career. This is also the first time that they’re actually utilizing, throughout an entire record, the conventional five-piece instrumental weapons of bluegrass: guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle and bass. It sounds more like them than any record. I recommend that you listen to it, and when it’s over, listen to it again.

The quintet provided the soundtrack for what would be a nice long set of bluegrass, nearly two and a half hours! The highlight of the show for me was the four songs that featured Keller: “Black Sheep”, “Criminal”, “Winds On Fire” and “Bertha” (Grateful Dead). There were two glorius covers that were in this set: the first being Blind Melon’s “No Rain” toward the end of the set, and the first encore song “Life In The Fastlane” (The Eagles).

Watch the full set below, thanks to The Sober Goat!

Yonder Mountain String Band & Keller Williams | Live Concert Photos | February 4, 2016 | The Plaza Live Orlando

Yonder Mountain String Band Live Review by Richie Williams, The Sober Goat, edited by Matthew Weller.

Yonder Mountain String Band Concert Photos & Video by Richie Williams, The Sober Goat.

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