For more than 25 years, the Yonder Mountain String Band has performed bluegrass music with a flair for experimentation. They’re known as a “jamgrass” group, in the same vein as Leftover Salmon, Billy Strings and the Kitchen Dwellers, and while banjo player Dave Johnston says they’re less jammy than they used to be, the group still throws plenty of spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
“We don't have the strict musical intentions of what we want to want to do, like, ‘oh, here's a third-part movement, it's going to go like this and that and the other thing,’” Johnston told Aspen Public Radio last week. “I think, where our intention lies is (in) trying to convey authentically what we've perceived, what we're noticing, and what's going on around us.”
The band plays at The Arts Campus at Willits this Saturday; they’re currently on a nationwide tour with four core players on guitar, banjo, mandolin and bass, joined by a “special guest” fiddler who’s performed at every show for the last year and a half.
While some musicians have left the band, and others have joined, the group is still focused on that sense of authenticity. Guitarist Adam Aijala — who, with Johnston, is one of Yonder Mountain’s founding members — said the band aims to create a vibe where people can stay in the moment and let go for a couple of hours.
“This is the time to relax, and not think about anything else in your life, … whenever you're at one of our shows,” guitarist Adam Aijala said. “And I try to do that as well. I'm here, I'm in the moment.”
Aijala said he wants to apply that same philosophy to the rest of his life, too, and avoid getting “bogged down” by the past or the future.
But focusing on the present is harder to do these days, according to Johnston. He thinks people can get preoccupied by all the heaviness of their lives and the world around them — which underscores the importance of art and creativity.
“That’s why you go to any art form, you know, is to kind of tune into that wavelength (of the present),” Johnston said.
“The more that impulse is killed in people, the more nihilistic I think they become, and the more the society kind of dies a little bit, without that infusion of artistic impulse and joy,” he added. “It's meant to be lighthearted, what I'm talking about, but it's also super important.’
Johnston believes art and creativity can be a daily practice that counters “all the B.S. that comes into our minds everyday,” though he used a saltier expletive.
Despite the brief digression into philosophy — admittedly prompted by a reporter — Johnston and Aijala said the band doesn’t have a political agenda, or a specific message to share.
More than anything, the members of Yonder Mountain want to make sure audiences enjoy themselves, since that’s what the musicians have been doing since 1998.
“We're grateful, we're lucky, and it's supposed to be fun,” Aijala said.
“We do want people to have a good time,” he added. “And that is the goal.”
