Wild and crazy pickin’: Made famous through collaborations with actor/comedian/banjo player Steve Martin, the Steep Canyon Rangers’ raucous bluegrass is serious business. The band has nine albums on its own, three of which were released in the past 12 months, and two with Martin—including the 2012 Grammy-nominated Rare Bird Alert. But this is no backup act: When these pickers go to work onstage, comparisons to The Band, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the Zac Brown Band get tossed around.
For some artists, hitting the road is synonymous with coming home. The Brooklyn-based quartet Yarn, which recently planted its bluegrass roots in North Carolina, has notched more than a thousand shows across the country. It even has a Grammy nomination stapled to its name, and has shared the stage with both Alison Krauss and The Lumineers. The freshly revamped Americana band’s most recent release, This Is the Year, oozes optimism and quakes with anticipation for musical and personal triumphs to come. Adam’s Plastic Pond opens.
If bluegrass doesn’t typically grab your attention, Man About a Horse might be the band to change that. This five-piece from Philadelphia is on a mission to transform the folksy genre into dance music. Formed in 2014, the group employs mandolin, fiddle and banjo to create an up-tempo sound that both pays homage to and revitalizes its bluegrass origins with sets that combine original tracks and fiery covers of pop songs, accented by the band’s iconic horsehead mask.