Telluride Bluegrass: Yonder Pre-releases “Love. Ain’t Love” in Telluride

16 Jun Telluride Bluegrass: Yonder Pre-releases “Love. Ain’t Love” in Telluride

Telluride has its festivals. Nederland has Frozen Dead Guy Days. No kidding, celebrated annually from Friday – Sunday the first full weekend of March. A centerpieces of Frozen Guy Days is a screening of the film “Grandpa’s in the Tuff Shed,” a magnum opus which premiered at Mountainfilm in Telluride in 1998. A centerpiece of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival is another Nederland import: Yonder Mountain String Band. This weekend Yonder is near. Everywhere. Celebrating the pre-release of latest album Love. Ain’t Love.

The groups’s big set is scheduled for Saturday, June 17, 4 – 5:30 p.m.

Ain’t Love is due out on June 23. Scroll down for a taste of Yonder’s Bad Taste – filmed in Telluride.

Yonder  – now— Adam Aijala (guitar, vocals), Dave Johnston (banjo, vocals), Ben Kaufmann (bass, vocals), Allie Kral(violin, vocals), and Jacob Jolliff (mandolin, vocals) —– is back again for the 44th annual event, June 15 – June 18, 2017, having kicked off the long weekend with a NightGrass set Wednesday, July 15, at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village.

The band is celebrating the pre-lease of its latest album, Love. Ain’t Love, all weekend at Telluride Bluegrass.

And already, critics are singing the praises of Love. Ain’t Love.

“Taste of Country premiered the track ‘Take a Chance on Me’ saying: ‘Take a Chance on Me’ is a prime example of how Yonder Mountain String Band are able to juxtapose different musical forms into a cohesive whole. ‘Funky’ is just about the last word you’d expect to use to describe bluegrass, but Yonder manage to incorporate a funky groove with a sweet pop vocal hook and sunny vocal harmonies that would be right at home on mainstream pop radio for a track that is delightfully unexpected. They top off the track with impressive solos that demonstrate advanced instrumental ability without being overly showy,” Taste Of Country. 

“Yonder Mountain String Band turns 20 years old next year. The bandmates are kicking off the celebration six months early with the release of this summer’s Love. Ain’t Love, an album rooted in modern bluegrass and punctuated by genre-jumping excursions into world music, reggae and all points in between,” Rolling Stone Country.

Bluegrass is a music steeped in tradition, but over the past 19 years – much of it spent on the road – Yonder Mountain String Band has always played by its own set of rules. Following in the tradition to be non-traditional established by NewGrass Revival at the dawn of Telluride Bluegrass, much like Leftover Salmon, The Travelin’ McCourys and Railroad Earth, blending bluegrass, rock and countless other influences, Yonder pioneered a sound of its own. It’s bluegrass for the masses; acoustic tunes filled with dazzling chops; most of all, it is good, clean fun.

Yonder officially became Yonder in December 1998 and since went on to develop both a devoted bluegrass and jam band fanbase. In fact, they are one of the top touring bluegrass (sort of) bands in the country today. In all, Yonder Mountain logs over 100 live dates per year.