This just in:
Greensky Bluegrass is absurdly excited to announce that dobro player extraordinaire, Anders Beck, will be joining the band on a full-time basis. Fans of acoustic music know Anders from his work over the past few years with songwriter Benny Galloway and The Wayword Sons as well as numerous other collaborations with members of Leftover Salmon, Yonder Mountain String Band and other Colorado legends.
The relationship between GSBG and Anders started when the band played three shows in Colorado with The Sons and Anders sat in with the boys each night. Over the course of many late night jam sessions, it became clear that there was some serious musical chemistry brewing. At 2007's Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Anders joined GSBG for a song wearing large black angel wings. To this day, nobody really knows what that was all about, but what is known that it made everybody laugh and smile and jam a little harder, which really is what IT IS all about. In November, Anders joined GSBG on tour for a few weeks and it became very obvious that it was time to make this musical fantasy a reality.
Anders' creative and tasteful melodic playing add a new side to GSBG's already mature full sound. "Personally, I love Greensky's original songs and that is what initially really drew me to this band.", Beck says... adding later that "there are some bands where dobro doesn't fit or work due to a million different factors and others bands where it just fits instantly... Greensky definitely falls into the later group." Keeping on the subject, mandolin player Paul Hoffman stated that "this full-time addition of dobro, and particularly Anders' style of dobro playing, open up a lot of new doors for the band. Its a bigger, fatter sound and lets us explore different musical spaces... while still being able to shred bluegrass music."
Beck's first "official" show as part of Greensky Bluegrass will be at the band's New Years Eve Bash at the State Theatre in their hometown of Kalamazoo, MI. While Beck will be thrown into Greensky's rigorous tour schedule, he also notes that The Wayword Sons plan to continue to play shows and that he will continue working with some of his favorite side projects like Grateful Grass and The New Rank Strangers, featuring members of Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, Honkytonk Homeslice, and Ekoostik Hookah.
Greensky will be announcing some January shows in the midwest very soon as well as a Valentine's run in MI. In late February the quintet will be headed west for a "Mountain Time" tour filled with bluegrass and skiing. Stay tuned for the details.
See you on NEW YEARS EVE!!!
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