If you think recording an album of new material can be daunting enough, try doing it without a founding member of your band.
Black Sheep, which will make its debut on June 16th ahead of the 42nd Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, is the first studio release for Yonder Mountain String Band since their 2009 effort “The Show” six years ago, and the first since the departure of founding member Jeff Austin in early 2014.
YMSB has since added former Cornmeal fiddler Allie Kral and renowned mandolinist Jake Joliff, now sporting a lineup for the first time sport that qualifies as traditional bluegrass: a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and bass.
Even though some of the songs on the album, such as the title track and “Annalee”, have made their appearances in various tour stops already, all songs that appear on the album were written with the new arsenal of instrumentation in mind. It is also the first record they have produced as a complete band, without outside assistance.
L4LM Goes Behind The Scenes With Yonder Mountain String Band
To say there have been changes would be underselling the gravity of the changes, but the members of YMSB are convinced that they are moving forward and in the right direction. So much as to claim that their latest, Black Sheep is a testament to everything Yonder has aimed to achieve.
The album clocks in at ten tracks, including a bluegrass take on a punk rock standard. All of the songs deal with their newfound selves, on the other side of a massive change and the struggles in accepting the new direction the band is taking. Much of the longing feels like a raw tribute to the Austin years, in which no emotion is subject to censorship.
The first track, “An Insult and An Elbow,” opens in a fury as the instruments and voices fall one by one into staccato harmony. The fills are on point, and the fast-to-slow to fast-to-slow pace of the lyrics immediately draw the listener in.
The title track carries itself with a sharp rhythm reminiscent of a marching drum. The lyrics, “there’s a change in me / there’s a change in you” acknowledge the new direction of Yonder as they continue forward without Austin.
The next track on the album, “Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn’t Have,” perfectly encapsulates the stress of a passionate flame fueled romp of anxious desire with the expiration date in clear view before it even starts. Most people can relate to the tug-of-war ‘should or shouldn’t I follow through with this’ feeling, and the frantic banjo fretwork of Dave Johnston recreates this high strung anxiety to a tee. The band nails this bluegrass interpretation of the Buzzcocks punk rock hit.
The next song, “Annalee” could be the same flame from the previous track, but the subject shifts to the reason why it the romance was doomed. She is a sad, out of touch character who really puts the ‘blue’ into bluegrass.
The fifth song on the album, “Landfall” is appropriately one of the more outright uplifting songs on the record, a palate cleanser from poor “Annalee.” The soulful tenor of Dave Johnston restores hope and carries the listener to the first calm light of dawn after a thunderstorm. The track to track theme continues, with lyrics such as “reaching a cross / nobody’s place / feeling taken / without a trace” lead perfectly to the next track’s title.
In “I’m Lost,” the sixth song on the album, a funky muted-rhythm slowly builds a working backbone for Kral’s violin crescendo. A simple yet effective repeating banjo lick steers the song perfectly into the nostalgic winds of the lyrics. Our subject is left in a world to himself, “unable to read the signs.” He is forced in the seventh track to look “Around You,” the climax of the album’s story.
A very swinging classic bluegrass sound further develops the need to trek home, to one’s roots. The band really comes together in an archetypal bluegrass way, and could be literally taken at face: it’s time for the band to embrace their traditional line up with the same restless nature that is Yonder.
The very next song, “Love Before You Can’t,” sees the band turning a corner with the realization that stagnation will result in more of the same: a “half a life of complaining / it’ll always be so hard / there will always be shadows / and the guilty go free / so much room in a prison / that I built my self / and I built it just for me.” The song feels to be a positive reflection on the departure of founding member Jeff Austin, with newcomer Kral taking the lead vocals and speaking for the band: “I’m tired of being lost / I’m tired of what it costs / I cant explain the simple ways / I’m trying to get across / would you love me then / without running out of space / live with all the give and take that you can’t erase.”
“Drawing a Melody,” the ninth and final new original on the record, opens with a blistering banjo lick worthy of a “betcha can’t play this” backyard stomp. Lyrics such as “open ended, no control” speak both to the furious instrumentation of the track, but also of the band’s future. According to bassist Ben Kaufmann, “When you make a big change like we did, it’s a huge thing. But the band is a force and the album is such a perfect example of our new direction.” This sentiment is echoed within the lyrics “this is the end / fighting back the fears” of an era, and of what the future holds, respectively.
The album closes with a cover track, a reinterpretation of the old bluegrass standard “New Dusty Miller” with a modern day kick, most evident in the modern usage of the guitar as a scorching lead versus mostly a rhythmic device as in the 40s.
According to banjo player Dave Johnston, “It’s an exciting time for us because we have an invigorating sense of the future. At the end of the day, Yonder is a band with almost two decades of music under its belt, but we’re always a bit restless.”
Black Sheep is definitely a step in the right direction for Yonder Mountain String Band as they forge ahead. Austin purists might have a hard time accepting the new direction, but as the album truly captures a quintessential bluegrass sound, it will be impossible to resist.