Muddy Bottom Blues
Program #112 (July 14 at 8:00 p.m. and July 15 at 3:00 p.m.)
Formed in 2006, and drawing on the talents of then up-and-coming Nashvillians Andy Hall, Chris Eldridge, Chris Pandolfi, Jeremy Garrett, Jesse Cobb, and Travis Book, the Infamous Stringdusters managed to balance a fluency in old-timey bluegrass with indie jamgrass sensibilities.
They released their first album, Fork in the Road, on Sugar Hill in early 2007, which resulted in three awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association later that year. An eponymous sophomore effort arrived in 2008, followed by Things That Fly in 2010.
After a few personnel shifts, the band settled on a lineup of Andy Hall (Dobro), Andy Falco (guitar), Chris Pandolfi (banjo), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle), and Travis Book (upright bass). A live album, We'll Do It Live, which featured concert performances by the band from shows done in Virginia and New York in the spring of 2011, appeared in the fall of that same year from the band's own imprint, High Country Recordings.
A fourth studio album, Silver Sky, also from High Country, arrived early in 2012, with a deluxe edition that added an extra CD of live tracks released later that same year. A fifth studio album, Let It Go, again from the band's own label, was released early in 2014.
The Stringdusters struck a deal with Compass Records for their 2016 album, Ladies & Gentlemen, in which they collaborated with an impressive roster of female vocalists, including Joan Osborne, Lee Ann Womack, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Joss Stone, and Claire Lynch.
The group quickly returned to the studio, and had another album, Laws of Gravity, ready for release in January 2017.
(story provided by Allmusic)
