Leftover Salmon

Let's say you're in a band called The Salmonheads and they break up for whatever reason. A few of the members move on but as the lead guitarist, you feel obligated to keep giving fans the music they've paid good money to see. You are, in fact, what is leftover after a bad situation.

More or less that's how the Colorado-based jam-rockers Leftover Salmon got their name. Guitarist Vince Herman merged with members of a bluegrass band called Left Hand String Band in the early 1990s and have since released seven albums and toured almost non-stop. They have also become the Jennifer Lopez of the jam band scene, collaborating with everyone from Cracker to Waylon Jennings.

"My favorite is definitely Sam Bush, John Cowan and, you know, the bluegrass boys... Bela Fleck," said Leftover Salmon vocalist and mandolin player Drew Emmitt. He added that he has gotten an education from legends such as Taj Mahal and Waylon Jennings.

"[When] I get around someone like that, I just try to soak up what they do," he said. "I just go to school."

The night before talking to Recoil, Leftover Salmon joined their good friends Widespread Panic on stage in North Carolina. Emmitt said live collaborations like this are common because they share the same audience. Fans soak up spontaneous moments of musical harmony, and few jam bands have egos big enough to hog the stage.

"It's all about being real to your fans, and real to yourself, and just doing what you love to do - not trying to have pretensions about being big shots or anything," Emmitt said.

Leftover Salmon is really just a bunch of dudes who can play their instruments and write songs a little better than their fans. They play about 130 shows a year, down from the 250 shows a year that they were playing four or five years ago. This is partly because as an established band, they can pick and choose their shows and festivals. They also slowed down after the original LS banjo player Mark Vann died of Cancer in 2002. Emmitt said they realized there are more important things in life.

Noam Pikelny is the band's new banjo player, and Emmitt said there isn't any extra pressure for him because of the way Vann left the band. "All he really has to do is play the way he plays and it's been incredible," Emmitt said. Leftover Salmon Fans have been very supportive, which helped the band get through a time when they wondered if they even wanted to continue.

Leftover Salmon's members describe the band as a "dizzying combination of bluegrass, Cajun, funk, southern rock, boogie, Caribbean, Latin and jazz influences." Emmitt takes responsibility for the bluegrass and southern rock (he grew up in Nashville, Tenn.) and said Herman brings the Cajun feel. According to Emmitt, the band just sort of fell into the other sounds.

"I think we basically just started playing the kinds of music that we like to hear, and that's just kind of how it happened," Emmitt said. LS is rounded out by Bill McKay on organ and piano, Greg Garrison on bass, and Jose Martinez on drums.

LS fans known as "Salmonheads" merged with "Crackerheads" earlier this year when LS released the album O Cracker, Where Art Thou? - which is basically a Cracker cover album played with bluegrass instruments, recorded with David Lowery of Cracker in his home studio. "I definitely get a laugh out of it, but I've heard a lot of these songs throughout the years on mainstream radio, and for us to be recording them, it's actually pretty cool," Emmitt said.

Look for an album of new material to be released in early spring. Emmitt hinted that it will contain a few surprise guest appearances.

November 2003