Few bands stick around for thirty years. Even fewer bands leave a legacy during that time that marks them as a truly special, once-in-a-lifetime type band. And no band has done all that and had as much fun as Leftover Salmon. NPR’s Mountain Stage says, “One of the most fun-loving bands you’ll encounter, Leftover Salmon has built a fervent audience with an insatiable thirst for living, and re-living, its energetic live performances,” while Offbeat calls them, “One of the most spirited, jovial bands of the jam band nation.”
Since their earliest days as a forward thinking, progressive bluegrass band who had the guts to add drums to the mix and who was unafraid to stir in any number of highly combustible styles into their ever evolving sound, to their role as a pioneer of the modern jamband scene, to their current status as elder-statesmen of the scene who cast a huge influential shadow over every festival they play, Leftover Salmon has been a crucial link in keeping alive the traditional music of the past while at the same time pushing that sound forward with their own weirdly, unique style. Billboard writes, “By blending so many elements of two-step, rock ‘n’ roll, bluegrass and more, they’re able to repeatedly maintain a fresh sound, no matter how many years pass.”
Leftover Salmon formed in 1989 when members of two Colorado-based bands that occasionally jammed with one another, Vince Herman’s Salmon Heads joined forces with Drew Emmitt’s Left Hand String Band to play a New Year’s Eve show at the Eldo, a live music venue in Crested Butte. Salmon is a band who, over their thirty-year career, has never stood still; they are constantly changing, evolving, and inspiring. If someone wanted to understand what Americana music is they could do no better than to go to a Leftover Salmon show, where they effortlessly glide from a bluegrass number born on the front porch, to the down-and-dirty Cajun swamps with a stop on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, to the hallowed halls of the Ryman in Nashville, before firing one up in the mountains of Colorado.
The band now features a line-up that has been together longer than any other in Salmon history and is one of the strongest the legendary band has ever assembled. Built around the core of founding members Drew Emmitt and Vince Herman, the band is now powered by banjo-wiz Andy Thorn, and driven by the steady rhythm section of bassist Greg Garrison, drummer Alwyn Robinson, and keyboardist Erik Deutsch.
Leftover Salmon’s Vince Herman says, “A long strange swim it’s been for Salmon. Through many incarnations, losses, joys, festivals, bars, barns, mountains, rivers, oceans, benefits, weddings, and goat yoga sessions; we have kept the big ball rolling with a love of music and each other to keep ourselves plowing ahead the only way we know how. Thank you all for letting us have this much fun for so long.”
Leftover Salmon Winter 2020 Tour Dates
1/15 Wed – White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX*
1/16 Thu – Empire Control Room & Garage – Austin, TX*
1/17 Fri – Gas Monkey Live! – Dallas, TX*
1/18 Sat – Gruene Hall – New Braunfels, TX*
3/6 Fri – Crystal Bay Casino – Crystal Bay, NV
3/7 Sat – Warfield Theatre – San Francisco, CA^
3/12 Thu – Community Concert Hall Durango, CO
3/13 Fri – The Commonwealth Room – Salt Lake City, UT
3/14-15 Sat-Sun – Knotty Pine – Victor, ID
3/20-22 Fri-Sun – Boogie At The Broadmoor – Colorado Springs, CO
- w/ Jason Boland & The Stragglers
^ w/ ALO
For more information, tour dates, and other LoS news, please visit www.LeftoverSalmon.com.