Dailey & Vincent
"Brothers of the Highway"
Rounder

There are lots of good bluegrass albums, and there are a few great ones. There are also some that stand out even above those ones, and this new release from Dailey & Vincent is going to prove to be one of those.

Peter Rowan
"The Old School"
Compass Records

At times, Peter Rowan seems like the Zelig of roots music, that is, like the person in Woody Allen's film of the same name who becomes whoever he is standing next to. In the course of his long career, Rowan has been a bluegrass boy, a new-age Buddhist mystic and truly everything in between.

Saturday was opening day of the Tower Grove Farmers' Market and the launch of the seventh season of KDHX's Harvest Sessions series of acoustic concerts.

A haze descended over the audience as the lights rose over Yonder Mountain String Band on Friday evening at the Pageant. The night was filled with a groove that could be placed somewhere between the Grateful Dead and the classic bluegrass of Flatt and Scruggs, with country melodies and a musical muscle evident in jam-band circles. Dancers, drinks and bona-fide hippies took delight in all the sights and sounds.

Yonder Mountain String Band returned to St. Louis Friday night for a two-night stand at the Pageant.

Aside from the expansive light show and jam-band aesthetic, Yonder Mountain String Band is as blue as the grass of Kentucky.

That high lonesome sound floated through the Sheldon Concert Hall Friday night as Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder took the stage.

The members of the young, local band Old Salt Union were kind enough to sit down with me before their show with Acoustics Anonymous on February 14 at the Old Rock House to talk about their friendship, their new CD and their desire to open for the Deftones.

Punch Brothers came in strong and left in a whisper Friday night at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

"I look up at blue sky of perfect lost purity and feel the warp of wood of old America beneath me." An influential passage from "October in the Railroad Earth," written by Jack Kerouac, sums up the exultant vibe of Saturday night's Railroad Earth show at the Pageant.