Climb every Mountain

Four years ago, at the foot of yonder mountain, four guys influenced by Colorado bluegrass found the inspiration to come together and make music. At 10 p.m. today, they'll bring their unique sound to Bluebird Nightclub. \n"We picked up The Best of Sing Out, a folk publication of the 1960s, and started flipping through it and found a song that said 'at the foot of yonder mountain,' and that was it," Jeff Austin says emphatically of how they chose their name, Yonder Mountain String Band. "We're not your grandpa's bluegrass band."\nAustin, who studied musical theater and voice at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, picked up the mandolin just five years ago. In addition to Austin's mandolin, Yonder Mountain is comprised of upright bassist Ben Kaufman, guitarist Adam Aijala and banjoist David Johnston. They have no drummer. \n"I like the fact that they don't have a drummer, that they're all string instruments," junior Seth Cook says. After seeing the band last summer at the 28th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Cook was compelled to drive to Champaign, Ill., last week for their show that he describes as, "a lot of fun." \n"You'll do a lot of dancing. (Austin), the mandolin player, tears it up -- his solos are so fast," Cook continues. "They mix in traditional bluegrass songs with original songs, so even if you don't know them, you'd recognize some of their songs. They put on a really good show, really into the music and they talk to the crowd. Their shows are a lot of fun with a good atmosphere."\nIn search of that good atmosphere and mandolin solos, Cook says he'll no doubt be at tonight's show. Austin says it's fans like Cook that make his job worthwhile.\n"Being on stage is emotionally charging -- to have two, three thousand people jumping around, screaming, singing along with you," Austin says. "It's very fueling. Making music allows you to truly put your heart out there and let people see it."\nThe band just released its third CD, Town by Town, Sept. 7, and Austin says the styles of Bill Monroe, David Grisman, Pink Floyd, the Misfits, Frank Zappa, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra "and Kermit the Frog" are evident on the album. He gives no indication of whether or not he is joking about Kermit, saying, "We have a wide range of musical influences."\nThough excited to showcase their new music to crowds across the country, Austin says most people have a misconception of the highs and lows of touring with a band.\n"What's fun about being on stage in a band is, in reality, what you deal with everyday -- it's not all backstage rooms and buses and parties -- it's a lot of hard work and busting your ass," he admits. "A lot of heart goes into it and you go through a lot of crap -- not sleeping for days, driving all over the place. Imagine the nice little rode trip you take with friends that lasts 275 days during the year. Usually we're in a small van ... around each other all the time and you can imagine that sometimes it's large wolves chewing at each other."\nTo rekindle their creative spark, Austin says the band will introduce new music or take a complete break and see a movie or feed their roller coaster addictions.\n"You've got to try to find some way to relax, look inside yourself and see what you need to do to recharge -- whether that means you sit down and write a tune and practice or step away from instrument for a few days and go out on a hike," Austin says. "We're human beings like anybody else who go through ups and downs, but everybody has a great time. We're people trying to make other people dance."\nDave Kubiak, owner of the Bluebird, says he hopes Yonder Mountain String Band can succeed at making Bloomington dance tonight. He says after bringing Yonder Mountain to the Bird last April, he was hooked -- he wanted them to come back during their current tour.\n"I think Yonder Mountain is one of the most promising young jam bands in the country," Kubiak says. "Therefore that makes us very excited to come play here. They're very young and energetic and known for live shows." \nBut Yonder Mountain didn't always have the reputation Cook and Kubiak boast of; there was a time when they were just four guys with string instruments.\n"In 1999, we were all in attendance (at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival) enjoying the festival and watching it as observers, drooling (because) we wanted to play so bad," Austin says of the esteemed festival that they were able to play at last summer. "Life is just setting continual goals for yourself. You can either sit in easy chair and let years go by, or just go out there and bust your ass as extreme as you can. It's just setting the goals for ourselves, making an outline of those goals and trying to achieve them. We've been lucky, and it's good feeling."\nAustin says he hopes people will come out to their show with an open mind and a willingness to hear something different.\n"College is all about experimenting. There's a lot of different things you can experiment with and we're one of the cheapest," Austin says with a laugh. "We're not another noodle jam band that sounds exactly like Phish, and it's a break from average terrible pop band. We're trying to give something different and something real"