Railroad Earth

The music of Railroad Earth isn’t easy to classify, although most people are happy to label it “jam band” and move on. Still reading? Good, because while there’s definitely some “jamming” going on in the live show, this is not some guitar-noodling Phish knock-off. Bluegrass lies at the heart of Railroad Earth, but it’s a wide-ranging, omnivorous strain that isn’t afraid to ditch tradition and have some fun. As a result, you get all the banjo, fiddle and mandolin you’d expect, but it’s fused with electric guitars and drums, and prone to weird tangents that might touch on anything from Celtic to jazz. It’s a frequently surprising and relentlessly upbeat sound that’s at its very best live, regardless of what you call it.