Yonder Mountain String Band, which plays the Egyptian Theatre this week, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and founding banjoist Dave Johnston can’t believe it.
“It’s kind of one of those things that happens a little at a time until, finally, you step back and go, ‘Woah,’ when you realize it’s been quite a long time,” he said. “It’s hard to have a more detailed way of commenting about it except for that I feel lucky the three of us have hung around and managed to make music this whole time.”
The three Johnston is referring to are himself, guitarist Adam Aijala and stand-up bassist Ben Kauffmann.
Multi-instrumentalist Nick Piccininni joined the band in 2020. Johnston said the band isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon.
“We’re pretty lucky people and look forward to keeping going,” Johnston said.
Moving ahead also means making little adjustments along the way, according to Johnston.
“Obviously, you have to adapt and shift the way you travel and use social media and the internet, but other ideas and goals haven’t changed too much,” he said. “We still believe in the idea of collaborating and spontaneously making music without too many plans”
The collaboration between bandmates is a big part of Yonder Mountain String Band’s lifeline, Johnston said.
“What happens is we all allow everyone to come up with their own ideas in what they want to play, and you might see a musical or lyrical idea in a different light when you subject it to everyone else’s opinions,” he said. “I feel incredibly fortunate to have a great audience in Adam, Ben and Nick, where I can share my song ideas with. They are great to try new stuff out on. And vice versa. I have my own ideas that I bring to their songs.”
In addition to intra-band communications, Yonder Mountain String Band has made a career of communicating artistically with its audience, which is willing to take the musical ride.
“That means a lot to us,” Johnston said. “They’re part of the collaboration as well, because you share the energy with the audience and they share their energy with you. It ends up being a great synthesis kind of moment.”
Connection with the fans also leads to connection with peers, and that is evident in the Best Bluegrass Album Grammy Award nomination this year for the band’s 2022 album “Get Yourself Outside.”
Other nominees included “Toward The Fray” by The Infamous Stringdusters, “Almost Proud” by The Del McCoury Band, “Calling You From My Mountain” by Peter Rowan and the category’s winner, “Crooked Tree” by Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway.
“The Grammy nomination totally surprised us, no question,” Johnston said with a laugh. “I didn’t even know we submitted the album. So this was really cool. I mean, we’re humbled to be in the company of those people. It felt really wonderful to be nominated.”
The band’s 25th anniversary and the Grammy nod may not have happened if Johnston hadn’t picked up the banjo when he was attending college in Nederland, Illinois.
“A buddy of mine’s dad had one, and my buddy brought it down during spring semester,” Johnston said. “Without knowing what bluegrass was, I picked the banjo up. Because of the way it was tuned, it instantly engaged my imagination and got my attention right away.”
Johnston’s attention turned his ears onto banjo pioneers Earl Scruggs and The Seldom Scene.
“I heard them on a local radio show in Champaign, Illinois, and I thought it was amazing music,” he said. “Ever since then I’ve been trying to learn how to play the banjo.”
One of Johnston’s secrets to keeping up his chops is being a teachable musician.
“There’s so much cool stuff out there that’s worth your curiosity, time and effort,” he said. “The banjo is such a malleable instrument. It has a bigger voice than what most people give it credit for. And there are many people who are expanding the voice banjo — Noam Pikelny, Punch Brothers and, of course, Bela Fleck. They are the ones who make the world go around for me.”
In the meantime, Johnston is keeping his eye on the future.
“We have more amorphous goals like keep playing, not giving up or quitting, but my other goals come out of how lucky we are to have this band that can spend four days and play four nights in Park City,” he said. “My immediate goals are to keep enjoying that, and having a better-developed sense of gratitude. Oh. and I want to keep writing songs.”