Opera House: Leftover Salmon Returns, Shows 3/15- 17

09 Mar Opera House: Leftover Salmon Returns, Shows 3/15- 17

Celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with Telluride’s Sheridan Arts Foundation as jam-grass favorites Leftover Salmon play the historic Sheridan Opera House March 15, 16 & 17, 2017. Doors will open at 8 p.m.; show begins at 9 p.m. Tickets are $35 GA on the floor; $45 reserved seats in the balcony plus a $4 ticketing fee (which applies at all sales outlets). Tickets are on sale at sheridanoperahouse.com or by calling 970-728-6363 ext. 5 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Scroll down for a Salmon sampler.

Over the past 25 years, Colorado’s Leftover Salmon established itself as one of the great purveyors of Americana music, digging deep into the well that supplies its influences; rock ‘n’ roll, folk, bluegrass, Cajun, soul, zydeco, jazz and blues.

The band is now firmly established in the long lineage of groups that defy simple categorization, instead setting their own musical agenda. Salmon is the direct descendant of bands like Little Feat, New Grass Revival, Grateful Dead, and The Band, born in the heart and soul of America itself, playing music that reflects the sounds emanating from the Appalachian hills, the streets of New Orleans, the clubs of Chicago, the plains of Texas, and the mountains of Colorado.

During Leftover Salmon’s 25+ years as a band, it has headlined shows and festivals from coast to coast, released nine albums, and maintained a vibrant, relevant, and influential voice in the music world. Over that time, the group’s sound has grown and evolved while staying true to the roots and guiding spirit of the band’s founding members –  mandolinist/singer Drew Emmitt and guitarist/singer Vince Herman.

The evolution of Leftover Salmon’s music is influenced by Emmitt and Herman’s keen musical instincts, and follows a musical path that adheres to the deep tradition the duo started when they first formed the group along with deceased banjo player Mark Vann.

The addition of new band members over the years has nurtured an unmistakable evolution and freshness in Leftover Salmon’s sound and added an edge to the long-lasting power of its music.

Now fueled by the rhythm section of drummer Alwyn Robinson, keyboardist Erik Deustch, and long time bassist Greg Garrison, Salmon is currently enjoying a creative renaissance. The front line trio of Emmitt, Herman, and prodigious banjo player Andy Thorn is continually challenged and pushed in new directions as the band collectively searches for new spaces and sounds within its extensive catalog.

Leftover Salmon’s greatness cannot simply be measured through album and concert ticket sales however. For a band as unique as Leftover Salmon, that measure is found in its impact on the music world as whole.  With the band’s unpredictable approach in a live setting to a willingness to take chances by fusing disparate musical styles together and incorporating non-traditional bluegrass covers into its repertoire, Leftover Salmon has pushed that progressive bluegrass sound it was originally influenced by to a whole other level.

Leftover Salmon is considered to be the architect of a genre that has come to be known as Jamgrass in which bands clearly schooled in the traditional rules of bluegrass break free of those rules through non-traditional instrumentation and an innate ability to push songs in new, psychedelic directions live. This approach  has created an altogether new dimension for bands such as The String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, Greensky Bluegrass, The Infamous Stringdusters, and countless others to inhabit.

In other words, Leftover Salmon’s willingness to never be boxed in by “normal” music standards has given the bands that have followed in their wake the license to do and try what they want.

Salmon celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2015 with the release of the live album 25, which complied performances from the previous two years and the band’s collaborations with Little Feat keyboardist Bill Payne.

Leftover Salmon continues to deliver powerful performances on stages and at festivals across the country, reaffirming its presence as one of the most engaging and charismatic bands to ever hit the touring circuit.

For Emmitt, looking back on over 25+ years in Leftover Salmon, he is proud of the group’s humble beginnings, its lengthy list of accomplishments, and the lasting impact his band has:

 “I never would have dreamed that I would have been in a band that furthered that musical tradition I looked up to growing up,” says Emmitt. “To be able to take the influences I had, and go even further with it, with Leftover Salmon. Making it more of a rock ‘n’ roll thing, but still playing bluegrass – that was the vision. Going from the campground to the main stage, that has been like a fairy tale for us.”