The John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band performs “Die Trying” during their Second Story Garage session in the Boulder Daily Camera newsroom studio.
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Less than a year ago, John Jorgenson recruited some friends to start a bluegrass band. His friends all happen to be extremely skilled, seasoned musicians, so the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band was almost certain to be worth hearing. Expectations were met. Take it from us.
Jorgenson is known as a humbling guitarist, but he plays lots of instruments, and in the bluegrass band, he’s on mandolin. He’s joined by Herb Pedersen on banjo, Jon Randall on guitar and Mark Fain on bass. During its Second Story Garage appearance, the band gave us renditions of “Beautiful Sound,” “Die Trying” and “No One Else” — and showed why this latest Jorgenson project picks up fans wherever it performs.
Jorgenson, who cut his chops performing at Disneyland, first gained national exposure in the 1980s as a member of the country-rock duo The Desert Rose, and he went on to work with Elton John, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand and other music heavyweights. In the 1990s he won praise for his guitar work as part of the The Hellecasters and, more recently, began touring with a Django Reinhardt-inspired quintet.
Pedersen, Randall and Fain come with similarly impressive resumes, and they push each other to high lonesome bluegrass bliss. They all sat down with Quentin to talk about it.
What they brought us: Quite a collection of Jorgenson CDs.
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