Anyone who’s enjoyed a Leftover Salmon show over the years should be very familiar with standout keyboardist Bill McKay. While “Papa Bill,” as Salmon frontman Vince Herman sometimes refers to him, tinkles the keys infectiously in just about any genre, he drops jaws when he unleashes one of his legendary…

Greensky Bluegrass takes bluegrass to a new high by weaving psychedelic rock into a roots-oriented go-for-broke approach. While retaining a good dose of backwoods authenticity on genre standards as well as its own earthy creations, Greensky marks live gigs with crowd-pleasing interpretations of the music of Pink Floyd and the…

Nimble-fingered Leftover Salmonite Drew Emmitt teams with String Cheese Incident strummer Bill Nershi for a soul-warming platter of acoustic fare. The shimmeringly clear recording enables a rootsy blend of strings to ring through on everything from the Gypsy jazz-inspired instrumental cut “Surfing the Red Sea” to the Latin-infused track “Mango…

Rambling down a country back road of old-time bluegrass and Americana-inspired ditties, Paonia’s husband-and-wife team of Bill Powers and Shelley Gray (best known for their work with the Sweet Sunny South) lead a nimble acoustic formation through a musical holler of lazy hounds, yawning porches, banjos and long-gone neon motels…

Named Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year for the past two years by the National Blues Foundation, Tab Benoit rolls into town on a hot streak in support of his latest release, Night Train to Nashville. Expect Tab and his longtime backing outfit, Louisiana’s LeRoux, to haul in a…

Never ceasing to till the soil in search of roots, Otis Taylor rolls up his sleeves and digs down to the origins of the banjo on his latest effort, Recapturing the Banjo. Not one to recycle popularly accepted notions of a genre or instrument (previous outings include a critically acclaimed re-examination of the blues), Taylor burrows past the more recognized bluegrass variety of banjo playing…

Echoing a variety of artists, from Blues Traveler and the Black Crowes to Steve Kimock and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Stanky Pockets nods to its roots-leaning influences while creating a sound of its own. On the band’s debut, vocalist and harmonica player Miles Guzman throws down, exhibiting…

Pete Wernick began his long career as one of bluegrass’s most accomplished purveyors in the most unlikely of places: New York. Since moving to Colorado in 1976, “Dr. Banjo” has gained renown with the legendary group Hot Rize and demonstrated his plucking skills with such groups as Phish, Leftover Salmon…

Over the years, Otis Taylor (due at the Oriental Theater on Thursday, March 1, and Nissi’s on Friday, March 2) has racked up accolades for shaking up the blues idiom with lyrically unique and instrumentally inventive interpretations of the rootsy form. On his latest effort, he extends his pensive creative…

Alabama-born Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay is best known for her vocal contributions to legendary Muscle Shoals Studios recordings by the likes of Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and, later, the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band. In 1980, shortly after leaving the Dead, she lost her first husband in…

Spiritual journeys, ancient tribal ritual and Mayan cosmology are all in a day’s work for Kan’Nal. The band was born of a vision that its lead singer, Tzol, had during one of his regular winter jaunts to Guatemala several years back. Following his Central American epiphany, Tzol enlisted six other…

While some fans of the now-defunct Phish do not bubble as wildly for the latest musical spawn of Trey Anastasio, there appears to be no shortage of appreciative minnows hatching in his ongoing musical pool. Touring in support of his latest effort, Bar 17, Anastasio pulls into the Fox for…

Motet drummer and principal composer Dave Watts might be among the most studied timekeepers on the planet. Given to using terms like “African diaspora” when describing his rhythmic influences, Watts isn’t simply smacking the cans in standard time, as evidenced by his musical output. Drawing upon a lifelong passion for…

Beginning in 1994 as an Allman Brothers offshoot, hard-edged power trio Gov’t Mule carved its name in rock history by putting on incendiary live shows and touring steadily between Allman obligations. Despite the death of original bassist Alan Woody in 2000, guitarist Warren Haynes and drummer Matt Abts soldiered on,…

Mike Andrews, who handles six-string duties for the Greyboy Allstars, is well established in both the visual and aural mediums. His prolific composing credits include scoring the 1988 cult flick Donnie Darko, as well as songwriting contributions to Miranda July’s film Me and You and Everyone We Know and the…

Founded last spring following a one-time get-together for a rainforest benefit in Boulder, Great American Taxi is most prominently driven by former Leftover Salmon frontman and unabashed loon Vince Herman — but he’s by no means the only driver with pedal power in the band’s collective talent pool. The outfit,…

Instrumental music can be cold and clinical. Fortunately, the Sputter — which thankfully doesn’t live up to its foreboding tag — fans its sound to more combustible ends. On its latest disc, Great Unseen, the outfit ignites a mother lode of grooves with the pleasing sparks of the organ-driven opener,…

RAQ hasn’t amassed the type of popularity that might result in a frozen treat being named after it. Even so, its renown is spreading like hot fudge on a cold scoop of Vermont’s finest. The band’s ties to the land of Ben and Jerry and that state’s jam-friendly scene are…

Stoned Emotion’s freshman release drips with echoes of My Morning Jacket, John Mayer, Warren Haynes and even ’80s alt-rockers the Feelies. Lushly produced, the disc moves from one pleasing track to the next. Vocalist, lead guitarist and principal songwriter Phil Dudden’s everyman voice proves flexible, whether biting into the Southern-rock…