...Bluegrass, "Progressive Bluegrass", or whatever you want to call bands of this ilk. Who are your favorites? Mine are:

Railroad Earth
Greensky Bluegrass
YMSB
Cornmeal
Infamous stringdusters

Railroad Earth- They used to be my favorite but have been losing me the last 2 albums...somethings missing for me and I hope they get it back...Tim needs to stay away from the electric guitar and keep fiddling..they are all top knotch players and Todd's lyrics are deep
Greensky Bluegrass..These guys are so damn good and know how to stretch out a jam. Love the Old Barns tune.
YMSB....Big fan..everyone should go to a String Summit, where they play with Danny Barnes and Darol Anger
Cornmeal..Fun band once you get past the vocals
Infamous stringdusters ..They will be top dogs some day soon, simply the best around and are very good at breaking the jams into trios, duets, etc.


Head for the Hills...Super talented players, tight band
Packway Handle...Unique band with graveyard songs
Hickory Project...ever changing lineup but always excellent...some of the players are in a GD bluegrass cover band
Danny Barnes...most badass banjo player on the planet
Jack Straw..from Oregon, traditional but then, not
Emmit Nershi band..Now that they have Johnny Grubb on bass watch out..hot damn I love this band
Larry Keel...It's too back Larry doesn't make it out west too often, he's one hell of a flatpicker

WOW! Thanks for the reviews and suggestions! Exactly what I wanted to know! I have a few comments of my own but I'm deep into this cornmeal show right now (11-06-2010) and they are rocking the hell out of Maggie's Farm so I can't type. Thanks!

"Railroad Earth- They used to be my favorite but have been losing me the last 2 albums...somethings missing for me and I hope they get it back...Tim needs to stay away from the electric guitar and keep fiddling..they are all top knotch players and Todd's lyrics are deep"

Thanks again for your detailed response. I agree with almost everything you wrote. I did want to respond to your thoughts on Railroad Earth though. First off I agree that Todd's song writing is top notch. As far as Tim staying away from the electric guitar and the sound of the last two albums... well, I agree that the sound has changed a bit, but I like it (a lot). I think it may just be the evolution of the project. I think every band changes as it matures. Tim's use of the electric guitar, plus the addition of Andrew Altman, who sometimes uses the electric bass instead of the stand-up bass, has added a more rock-and-roll sound. Again, while some (I think a minority) of older RRE fans are bothered by this, I think the band's new material is great and so it has only increased my enjoyment of the band. They still play plenty of "old school" RRE sounding stuff and mixing in the "newer sound" has helped them expand their fan base. RRE was never a bluegrass band of course, and so the hard-core Bluegrass fans never really came out in droves to see them. All the while they were far to Bluegrass for most "mainstream" fans (ie deadheads). Thus the band has been/is stuck in between these two worlds...playing great music that slips between genres. Is it possible that they needed to become a little more mainstream to either (a) increase their fan-base or (b)remain economically viable (something I hope they do so they will be around for a LONG time)? I don't know but whatever the reason was for changing the sound I just love it and RESPECTFULLY disagree that "something is missing". The last time I saw RRE was in White River Junction, VT. They played in this old barn (Tupelo music hall) next to the river. Some old train tracks ran along the river and there was a few long-ago-aboandonded railcars laying around too which added ambiance. The snow was lightly falling and the band put on a show that I will never forget. Great music, great friends. Oh and I spoke to Todd outside before the show and asked why the show was announced just a couple of weeks before it happened. He said that they (the band) wanted to go skiing so they decided to put on a show last minute! Love the spontaneity. Don't get too down on Railroad!

And in response to: "Emmit Nershi band..Now that they have Johnny Grubb on bass watch out..hot damn I love this band"

I haven't heard to much of these guys yet, but what little I have heard is good. Definitely gonna check them out when I can. But I wonder why Johnny Grubb left RRE under the auspices of wanting to spend more time with his growing family and to pursue a career in computer software design (or something like that) only end up playing with another band. I've thought of asking this question on Earthboard but am afraid it will look like I am trying to start trouble, which I am not. Then again, there is no dumb-assed "karma button" on Earthboard so perhaps it is this board that I should be afraid to ask stuff on (rant over).
Thanks again.

Our local boys, CABINET:

Holy smokes, that barn scene in White River sounds perfect for a show! They've done some spontaneous gigs here in SF, I've seen Todd play solo twice, shows that were barely announced. They have strong ties out here with the happy brigade, High Sierra Festival, etc..The 1st time I saw Cornmeal they opened up for RRE, a late night show at High Sierra that went til dawn. Good times.

Tim is an extraordinary fiddler, he already rocks on his string solos..to my ears the guitar just drowns everyone else out. I want to hear Andy and Johnny too and more intricate interplay, a conversation. When Phil chose them to play as friends it was a dream come true and they were one of his strongest lineups IMO.

2 things are missing for me, just for now, hopefully..less strong melody lines in the tunes and lack of powerhouse jam vehicles like 7 Story Mountain, Black Bear or Ellko. The newer tunes, except for Johnny's, seem to be either strum along folk songs or rockers and I like mid-tempo dynamic and interplay. So the new tunes mostly sound either a bit flat or too loud to me. An older tune like Storms is a good example, nothing too fancy going on there but it has that strong melody line going through the whole tune, the riff that starts the song. It's an instant classic.

At least they are not going techno like String Cheese or anything along those lines... it's interesting that Nershi and Grubb now end up in a band together. It would be a fair guess to think maybe they both wanted the same thing, to jam out (Emmit-Nershi plays the trippy SCI tune Jellyfish, for example) but in a more roots based sound, ripping it up acoustic. I love RRE and hope their next batch of tunes get me there...or the batch after that..

you can find some good Emmit-Nershi shows on the archive, btw

Thanks for the reply sjf. Here is the link to that show in White River Junction, VT in case youd like to hear it: http://www.archive.org/details/rre2011-02-24

It's funny though that sometimes the shows I enjoy BEING at the most aren't the ones that I LISTEN to the most after the fact. The above show is a good example. It was a great show in its entirety... but listening to a track here, a track there doesn;t seem to work. Now contrast that with this show:
www.archive.org/details/rre2010-12-02.ccm4v.flac16

This (^^^) show is from a different Tupelo Music Hall (Londonderry, NH). I have a good time at this show too, but it was not mind-blowing. However it is probably the show I listen to the most. It seems made to listen to a-track-or-so at a time. AND (this is the important part) I think it highlights some of their new material very well. Give "Potter's Field" a listen... I especially like the haunting new ending they put on it. This I think shows how a song can evolve from the way it appears on the album into something different as it is played live over time. "Lone Croft Farewell" is another example of a new song that was "so-so" when they first started playing it and now is VERY powerful. So I hope that Hobos will give the new stuff a chance. Maybe I'm weird in that I liked it from the start.

BTW the song title "TOB" is "Walk Beside Me"... not sure what TOB means.

Railroad Earth
YMSB
Larry Keel
Old School Freight Train
The Hackensaw Boys
Infamous Stringdusters
Jackass Flats

Thanks, Lynx, I'll check these shows out and get back to you. I'm glad to hear the new songs are developing.
I left out Chris Thile...that is sooo wrong...yeah, the Hackensaw Boys are pretty darn good too and another band I really dig that rarely plays shows is The Crooked Jades. Here is a taste of Thile with flatpicking god Brian Sutton...

Railroad Earth.
Yonder
Infamous Stringdusters
Greensky Bluegrass
Elephant Revival
Cornmeal
Trampled By Turtles
Emmitt Nershi Band
Cabinet
Hot Buttered Rum