In Focus: Yonder Mountain String Band at The Egg

For the first time since 2003, Yonder Mountain String Band took the stage at The Egg on Friday, January 24.

Yonder Mountain String Band
photo by Pat Rogers

The jamgrass group from Colorado, now in their 27th year, is no stranger to the Capital Region, having played most recently at the Empire State Plaza, Alive at 5 and Proctors, drawing great crowds in the process.

The mostly full Kitty Carlisle Hart Theatre were treated to a two hour show full of classic Yonder songs, which bassist Ben Kaufmann noted was a band commitment to rehearse old catalog songs. But first, a cover of early Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers rocker “I Need to Know” to kick off the night, followed by mid-career YMSB fare, “Insult and an Elbow” and “Near Me.”

Yonder Mountain String Band
photo by Pat Rogers

The only song off Nowhere Next – which debuted at #2 on the Billboard Bluegrass charts, a sign of the band’s longevity and perseverance – was the upbeat “Come See Me.”

Yonder Mountain String Band
photo by Pat Rogers

Mandolinist Nick Piccininni, a New Hartford, NY native, had a cheering section in the house this evening, with cheers for Nick between songs and requests tossed out from family and friends. Piccininni sang lead on “Ramblin in the Rambler” with nursery rhyme turned folk song “Polly Put the Kettle On” squeezed inside the “Rambler.”

Yonder Mountain String Band
photo by Pat Rogers

A Yonder Mountain show is always peppered with covers, which this evening included Jerry Garcia’s “They Love Each Other,” “You’re No Good” by Dee Dee Warwick and the Rolling Stones’ “No Expectations” were among the mid show selections.

A fiery “Out of the Blue” was a mandolin clinic from Piccininni, who shortly after picked up a fiddle for a duel with fiddle player Coleman Smith.

The set would close with “On the Run” > “Pretty Daughter” > On The Run to cap the two hour show. But wait there’s more! For the encore, the band took to the lip of the stage, instruments unplugged, to play, as Kaufmann put it, “as god intended.”

photo by Pat Rogers

Sharing their thanks to the crowd and reiterating the band’s purpose to express joy, they launched into a three song unamplified encore – Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky,” Boffalongo’s “Dancing in the Moonlight” and the traditional “Shady Grove.” An incredible end to a wonderful return to The Egg for one of jamgrass’ finest.

Yonder Mountain String Band – The Egg, Albany, NY – Friday, January 24, 2025

Setlist: I Need to Know, Insult and an Elbow, Near Me, Come See Me, Ramblin’ in the Rambler > Polly Put the Kettle On > Ramblin’ in the Rambler, They Love Each Other, Complicated, Hole, You’re No Good, No Expectations> Out of the Blue, Fiddle Tune, On the Run > Pretty Daughter > On the Run

Encore: Goodbye Blue Sky, Dancing in the Moonlight, Shady Grove

photo by Pat Rogers

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