Sunday, July 18th
THIS EVENING’s PODS ARE SOLD OUT, SORRY.
Gates Opens at 5:00pm | Music Starts at 5:15pm | Event Ends at 9:00pm
yonder mountain String Band
7:45PM TO 9:00PM
Yonder Mountain String Band is one of the most influential acts on the acoustic music scene. Pioneers of the Jamgrass movement, Yonder Mountain is known for their ability to channel a wide variety of musical styles. The acoustic lineup just happens to be the vehicle they’ve chosen to haul their many influences ranging from punk rock to the Grateful Dead. With a willingness to try new things and do what the music demands, Yonder Mountain continues to expand the traditional genre beyond all established boundaries and into the realms of rock n roll and improvisation.
Founding Members Adam Aijala, Ben Kaufmann, David Johnston and Allie Kral, who became an official member in 2015 are now joined by multi-instrumentalist Nick Piccinni. The live show will undoubtedly be in line with what you’d expect from Yonder Mountain String Band: heart-felt, edgy and genre-defying music.
Notorious for their wild live shows, choice cover tunes, and lengthy onstage experimentations, Yonder Mountain String Band earned an especially loyal audience on the jam band circuit. With a large following of fans known as “Kinfolk” traversing the country with them, taping their shows and trading their music, the band gained momentum and found themselves playing to sold out crowds in iconic venues such as Red Rocks, The Fillmore San Francisco, The Warfield Auditorium, and esteemed festivals such as The Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Bonarroo, High Sierra, Fuji Rock Festival, Summer Camp and Delfest, to name a few. Yonder Mountain also partnered with promoters to curate their own festivals: Northwest String Summit (Oregon), Kinfolk Celebration (Colorado), Yonder Mountain Harvest Festival (Arkansas) and Strings and Sol (Mexico).
RYAN MONTBLEAU
6:30PM TO 7:30PM
For as long as he can remember, Ryan Montbleau’s been a seeker. From the jungles of Peru to the volcanoes of Hawaii, from the beaches of Costa Rica to the streets of Brooklyn, from the backseat of a 16-passenger van to backstage at Carnegie Hall, the acclaimed singer/songwriter has spent much of his life crisscrossing the globe on a perpetual search for meaning, purpose, and understanding. It’s a quest that’s guided him both personally and professionally over the years, one that’s come to define not only his music, but his very sense of self. And yet, listening to Montbleau’s ambitious new multi-part album, Wood, Fire, Water, and Air, there is a profound sense of satisfaction in sitting still, a recognition that perhaps all those spiritual treasures he’s been chasing for so long were closer than he thought.
“My whole adult life has been this journey of trying to figure out where home is,” Montbleau reflects. “I think I’ve finally found it.”
Set to roll out across four distinct EPs, Wood, Fire, Water, and Air marks Montbleau’s first studio release since putting down permanent roots in Burlington, Vermont, where he recently purchased a house after more than two decades of living on the road. While much of the material here was written in fits and starts over the past several years, it’s clear that the desire for stability was very much on Montbleau’s mind even before he settled on the banks of Lake Champlain, and the songs reflect a maturity and self-awareness that can only come from the difficult work of rigorous self-examination. Montbleau is quick to credit therapy for his growth of late, but he sings about more than just himself here, mixing sly humor and deep revelations as he meditates on the ties that bind all of us perfectly imperfect humans together. Taken as a whole, it’s a broad, insightful collection balancing boisterous rock and roll energy with intimate folk introspection, a sprawling, magnetic record all about listening, letting go, and living life.
“I’ve been through a lot over these past few years,” says Montbleau, “and I’ve experienced some monumental shifts in my perspective. The only way for me to write about it was to just get as honest and vulnerable as I could.”
Honesty and vulnerability have been hallmarks of Montbleau’s career since the early 2000’s, when he first began performing around his native Massachusetts. In the years to come, he’d go on to collaborate with artists as diverse as Martin Sexton, Trombone Shorty, Tall Heights, and Galactic, and rack up more than 100 million streams on Spotify alone. Along the way, Montbleau would share bills with stars like Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ani DiFranco, The Wood Brothers, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Mavis Staples, but it was his ecstatic headline shows—often more than 200 of them a year—that solidified his reputation as a roots rock powerhouse and an inexorable road warrior. NPR’s Mountain Stage compared his “eloquent, soulful songwriting” to Bill Withers and James Taylor, while Relix celebrated his “poetic Americana,” and The Boston Herald raved that “he’s made a career of confident, danceable positivity.”
That positivity would serve Montbleau well on the long and winding road to Wood, Fire, Water, and Air. Work on the record first began in the summer of 2019 at the gorgeous Guilford Sound studio in southern Vermont, where Montbleau and producer Adam Landry (Deer Tick, Rayland Baxter) laid down basic tracks with a rotating cast of players. At the time, Montbleau had little idea what he was getting himself into.
That doesn’t mean the hunt for purpose and meaning is over. Ryan Montbleau will always be a seeker, and that’s alright. As Wood, Fire, Water, and Air so beautifully demonstrates, sometimes the search is its own reward.
WEST MOUNTAIN TAKEOVER
5:15pm TO 6:15pm
West Mountain Takeover is a Bluesy, Grassy, Rockin' band with a Country flare to boot. Based in McCall ID, their repertoire includes originals and covers ranging from the Grateful Dead and Nirvana, to Chris Stapleton and Old Crow Medicine Show. Their lineup includes Mark Stoeckl on banjo, acoustic guitar, harmonica and vocals; Aaron Alkire on the pedal steel and mandolin; Jon "Jon U" Umbdenstock on lead tele and acoustic guitar; and Sean Gould on bass. Whether you want to dance, stomp-along, or melt away into improvisation, WMT has got you covered.