Rolling through the south on the final weekend of their 2017 Winter Tour, Yonder Mountain String Band and G. Love & Special Sauce pulled into Austin Friday to bring two amazing sets of music along with some great moments of collaboration.  With perfect weather, the mood in the crowd was up and everyone seemed was ready to get down. 

Up first to the stage and ready to throw down, G. Love & Special Sauce opened up with Come Up Man off their album, Sugar.  With Jim “Jimi Jazz” Prescott laying it down on the stand up bass and Jeffrey “The Houseman” Clemens keeping time on the drums, G. Love & Special Sauce knew how to get the crowd going.  After giving the crowd their own rendition of Back to Boston where G. Love changed the lyrics to be Back To Austin, he invited Allie Kral from Yonder Mountain to sit in on Rainbow.  Allie’s angelic voice and her fiddle playing made that a moment to not be forgotten.

The set continued on with a number of high energy songs like Rodeo Clowns, Free, and Blues Music before G. Love brought out Jacob Jolliff from Yonder Mountain to sit in with him on an electrifying rendition of Parasite which featured Jacob shredding his mando.   After that, G. Love & Special Sauce rounded out the set with more classics like I-76 and Baby’s Got Sauce before closing it out with a jam of Cold Beverage.  The crowd loved it until the end and while there was no time, they were still screaming for one more song; sadly, they’d have to wait.

A short stage change later, the lights dimmed as Yonder Mountain String Band took the stage and opened with a fast paced Casualty jam.  Featuring Ben Kaufmann on vocals and bass, Dave Johnston on banjo, Adam Aijala on guitar, Jake Jolliff on mandolin and Allie Kral on the violin, this song gave everyone a moment to shine.  Watching them play together, it was clear they were in the groove as they seamlessly lead into Sidewalk Stars. 

After that proper musical introduction, YSMB brought back out G. Love to sit in on the Linda Ronstadt classic, You’re No Good.  With G. Love providing some sick harp rhythms and Allie Kral on vocals, this collaboration was most certainly a crowd favorite and they rocked hard before ultimately coming back to where the jam all started; finishing with the rest of Casualty.