In many ways Greensky Bluegrass is the little band that could. And did. Forming near the turn of the century in Kalamazoo Michigan, this quintet has been traversing the nation like crazy with nearly 175 shows a year and stops at countless festivals along the way. Shortly after winning the 2006
Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition the group added Anders Beck on dobro to fully round out their sound and really hasn't looked back. Perhaps summed up best by NPR after their
stop by the Mountain Stage: "the group uses traditional bluegrass instruments to craft original songs and sounds. Occasionally, they'll venture into exploratory rock & roll jams, giving songs by the Talking Heads, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead and Bob Marley a bluegrass twist."
Hailed by Rolling Stone as "representing the genre for a whole new generation," Greensky continues to serve as a gateway between those who have never heard bluegrass and those who love it. Their most recent album,
Handguns, shoves rather than nudges folks towards loving the genre with every track. Though an improvement on their 2008 release
Five Interstates would seem an amazingly daunting task for most, they handled it with absolutely no problem.
Over the years at
WIDR I had few guests I enjoyed more than Kalamazoo's own
Greensky Bluegrass. Put simply, this band is the reason I love bluegrass. On a cold winter night about eight years ago the combination of Bell's Two Hearted and Greensky's cover of When Doves Cry hit all the right nerves and my adoration for the twangy goodness that is bluegrass has grown ever since.
Though there were several phone interviews and oddly enough a couple games of Catchphrase during the WIDR years, the tracks on this compilation are the only records that have made it through. The first six tracks were recorded in 2009 right before their recording of
All Access Vol. 1, their second live album. It was their first appearance on the show as a quintet, so it was a real treat to have em play for a little bit and end with their "Beat It" tribute to Michael Jackson. The last track on this compilation of sorts is a combination of two short songs played back in 2007 when three of the fellas stopped in before playing on of their countless Bell's shows. Here's what you'll be listening to:
1. Intro
2. Untitled
3. WIDR Serenade
4. All Four
5. Q & A
6. Beat It
7. WIDR Jam
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS ALBUM
