Few bands stick around for thirty years. Even fewer bands leave a legacy during that time that marks them as a truly special, once-in-lifetime type band. And no band has done all that and had as much fun as Leftover Salmon.
Since their earliest days as a forward thinking, progressive bluegrass band who had the guts to add drums to the mix and who was unafraid to stir in any number of highly combustible styles into their ever evolving sound, to their role as a pioneer of the modern jamband scene, to their current status as elder-statesmen of the scene who cast a huge influential shadow over every festival they play, Leftover Salmon has been a crucial link in keeping alive the traditional music of the past while at the same time pushing that sound forward with their own weirdly, unique style.
In their fourth decade as a band, Leftover Salmon is showing no signs of slowing down, continuing to create new music in the studio, including the most recent release Brand New Good Old Days (Compass Records 2021).+The latest album shows that Leftover Salmon is still proving it possible to recreate themselves without changing who they are.
The band now features a lineup that has been together longer than any other in Salmon history and is one of the strongest the legendary band has ever assembled. Built around the core of founding members Drew Emmitt and Vince Herman, the band is now powered by banjo-wiz Andy Thorn, and driven by the steady rhythm section of bassist Greg Garrison, drummer Alwyn Robinson, and dobro player & keyboardist Jay Starling.
The current lineup is continuing the long, storied history of Salmon which found them first emerging from the progressive bluegrass world and coming of age as one the original jam bands, before rising to become architects of what has become known as Jamgrass and helping to create a landscape where bands schooled in the traditional rules of bluegrass can break free of those bonds through nontraditional instrumentation and an innate ability to push songs in new psychedelic directions live.
Salmon is a band who for more than thirty years has never stood still; they are constantly changing, evolving, and inspiring. If someone wanted to understand what Americana music is they could do no better than to go to a Leftover Salmon show, where they effortlessly glide from a bluegrass number born on the front porch, to the down-and-dirty Cajun swamps with a stop on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, to the hallowed halls of the Ryman in Nashville, before firing one up in the mountains of Colorado.
Vince Herman
Things are just more fun when Vince Herman is around, and since helping co-found Leftover Salmon over a quarter century ago, Leftover Salmon shows have always been the most fun. Herman moved to Boulder, CO from Morgantown, West Virginia, where he was attending West Virginia University, in 1985. On his first night in town, he met his future bandmate Drew Emmitt at a show for Emmitt’s group at the time, the Left Hand String Band.
The two struck up an immediate friendship. For a short time after moving to Boulder, Herman joined The Left Hand String Band, marking the first time the two would play together in a band. Herman soon left The Left Hand String Band to pursue his own musical vision. He formed the Salmon Heads, a Cajun-jug band that tried to wrangle all of Herman’s disparate musical influences, Cajun, Calypso, Ska, and bluegrass into a coherent musical statement. His vision was fully realized on New Year’s Eve 1989 when the Salmon Heads and The Left Hand String Band united forces for a show.
The show was a rousing success and the energy created on stage that evening was something special, and a new band, Leftover Salmon, was born. It is a band that truly matched Herman’s vision and allowed him to showcase his wildly, theatrical stage antics and skills. Nearly thirty-years later those antics and skills are still on display at every show they play.
Drew Emmitt
If the Mount Rushmore of progressive bluegrass mandolin players is ever built, Drew Emmitt’s image will be on it alongside fellow legends like Sam Bush and David Grisman, who he channels every time he steps on stage. Emmitt got his start at an early age in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado taking lessons from Hot Rize’s Tim O’Brien. He soon joined the progressive bluegrass group The Left Hand String Band, and remade the band through his desire to combine rock ‘n’ roll and bluegrass.
This combination provide an exciting and explosive sound and led to The Left Hand String Band becoming one of the most popular bands in the region. They regularly played some of the most prestigious bluegrass festivals over the years including Telluride and RockyGrass. Campground jams and occasional sit-ins with Vince Herman’s Salmon Head’s at those festivals, eventually led to a merging of the Salmon Heads and The Left Hand String Band for a 1989 New Year’s Eve show and the birth of Leftover Salmon. Since that New Year’s Eve show, multi-instrumentalist Emmitt has been the perfect foil for Herman, serving as a steadying influence for the band, acting as its primary songwriter, and forging a musical partnership entering its third decade.
Greg Garrison
Dr. Greg Garrison – as he is often referred to onstage due to his Doctor of Music Arts degree in jazz studies – is the epitome of what a bass player should be; steady, reliable, and rock solid. The uniquely skilled bassist is equally adept at a wide range of styles including rock, bluegrass, and jazz. Since graduating from the University of Illinois and moving to Colorado to continue his schooling, those talents have been on display in a number of settings, including playing with funk provocateurs The Motet, jazz trumpeter Ron Miles, bluegrass legends Sam Bush, Del McCoury and Vassar Clements, jazz guitarists Bill Frisell and John Scofield, and being a founding member of the critically acclaimed Punch Brothers.
This ability to play across genres has proven advantageous when playing with Leftover Salmon and their wide-ranging influences, as he can easily glide from style to style while holding down the bottom end. Garrison is the longest tenured member of the band (after founders Emmitt and Herman) serving as the engine that powers Leftover Salmon since joining in 2000.
ANDY THORN
Since being drafted from the Emmitt-Nershi Band to join Leftover Salmon, Andy Thorn’s powerful, driving, banjo picking has helped carry the band to new heights. Despite his young age, the North Carolina native brings a wealth of experience to the banjo seat in Leftover Salmon. Thorn first began playing banjo at age 12 after purchasing one at his neighbor's yard sale and has not stopped picking since. After high school Thorn moved onto the University of North Carolina where he earned a degree in Jazz Guitar and played in seminal local band Big Fat Gap, which has a long history of graduating players into bigger bands.
From there he moved to Colorado and joined The Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band, which included Anders Beck from Greensky Bluegrass and Travis Book from The Infamous Stringdusters in its lineup. The band was only around for a brief time, but they won the 2003 RockyGrass Bluegrass Festival Band Contest. That same year Thorn won the RockyGrass banjo contest. Despite the wave of attention that followed, the band soon broke up as they all begin to move onto other bands. Thorn moved back to the East Coast and joined flatpicking legend Larry Keel’s band. His time with Keel was brief as he was then recruited to fill the empty banjo spot in the Emmitt-Nershi Band, which led to him to officially joining Leftover Salmon in 2011.
Alwyn Robinson
For a band like Leftover Salmon who effortlessly moves from bluegrass to rock to a Cajun-tinged, high, octane party, where the tempos are demanding and can change in a moment, a dexterous, drummer who can comfortably transition from style to style with those ever changing tempos is a must. For Leftover Salmon, Alwyn Robinson is that drummer.
His background growing up in Texas, that found him playing drums in rock and country bands since middle school, through high school which saw him become an award winning percussionist, and continuing with his college years at Texas Tech that saw him sharpen his jazz and improvisational skills to a fine edge, have all served to be the perfect background for what he would find when he joined Leftover Salmon.
A move to Colorado to work on an advanced degree in music, was followed by an introduction to Leftover Salmon bassist Greg Garrison. Garrison recommended Robinson for Salmon’s vacant drum seat, which he filled in 2013, playing his first show with the band at Delfest that year.
Jay Starling
As the son of founding Seldom Scene member John Starling, Jay Starling had music in his bones from the start. From classical piano (he began at age seven) to delta blues and electric guitar, he was fascinated. By high school, he was reaching further, experimenting with drums, keyboards and electric bass. Nurturing a love for funk and fusion. After earning a degree in Psychology from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, Jay took off north to study drums at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.
A few years later, Starling returned home, B.A. of Professional Music in hand. He began playing electric guitar with regional band Mclaws Drive and keyboards with rock steady band The Transmitters. ” I really feel those bands helped me learn how to play with other musicians,” he says. “They were also ridiculously fun!”
One day after giving a guitar lesson at a local music shop, Starling was told he had a dobro student in 30 minutes. “Well, thats great,” he said, “but I don’t play the dobro!” To this, the manager replied, “You can figure something out.” After stumbling over a few licks, he fell in love with the instrument and the genre he had previously avoided. Five months later, he was playing the national bluegrass circuit with singer/songwriter Adrienne Young. Four months after that, Starling was invited to play dobro with tie-dye circuit staple, Keller Williams.
Over the past six years, Fredericksburg had become a musical “dojo” of sorts for Starling. With the amount of talent that existed in Fredericksburg and the surrounding areas, Jay was able to hone his practice over several instruments and genres. The time I spent in Fredericksburg after school was invaluable. I became a better player, met some amazing friends, and had a blast!” Starling also brought different kinds of music and players to the area giving the town a new musical dynamic. He thrived as a facilitator , introducing Charlottesville players to DC players to Richmond players etc. “Fredericksburg really helped me and I hope I did some good for it as well.”
Starling moved to Asheville in 2012 and is enjoying becoming part of a whole NEW scene.