The Infamous Stringdusters, Trampled By Turtles November 20, 2010

Though it may sound like hyperbole, the simple truth is this: there's no other band quite like the Infamous Stringdusters. Emerging from a lively community of friends and colleagues that's taken root in Nashville, they're six musicians poised at the point where youthful energy is balanced with maturity, inspiration with discipline and creativity with experience—exactly the sweet spot where the greats of bluegrass have made their most lasting marks. Schooled in tradition, yet able to stretch out in jam band style improvisation, endowed with razor-sharp vocals, fiery instrumental abilities and a rapidly growing repertoire of well-crafted original songs and tunes, the Infamous Stringdusters are as fresh an addition to the bluegrass—make that, the music—scene as has come along in many a year.

Trampled by Turtles is an acoustic quintet from Duluth, MN. Based on their instrumentation, the initial instinct is to view the band as a bluegrass or new-grass outfit, but spend more than a cursory moment with their music and it’s clear this tag doesn’t really fit. Trampled by Turtles exist beyond the box of categorization. For those who are simply fans of music, not bound by rules or forms, Trampled by Turtles take pieces of it all and just play from the heart. Call it alt-bluegrass, nontraditional string, indi-folk, rock-grass, punk-grass or anything else, they don’t care what name you put on it, just show up with an open mind and it won’t be long until you fall under their spell. Like all of us, where they were raised has influenced what they are and these guys didn’t grow up in southern roots country, they come from way up north where folks do it a little different.