Audio By Carbonatix
Nederland’s own Yonder Mountain, joined at Red Rocks by Keller Williams, is a jam band in the sense that, well, the members jam, and they do so pretty regularly. But Jeff Austin and company have a better feel for when to say when than many of their instrumentally diarrheal contemporaries. Their latest set is called Mountain Tracks: Volume 5, and yes, it’s the fifth volume of a concert-recording series that began back in 2001. If that description triggers warning bells, join the club. Still, the longest cut on its two discs tops out at just over eight minutes — fairly modest in this context — and others, like the charming “Head of That Woman,” run less than a third as long. Moreover, the solo segments in extended cuts such as “Kentucky Mandolin” spring from the bluegrass tradition, meaning that speed and finesse are valued over showboating and wankiness. If all jam tasted this good, you’d want to spread it on everything.
