Celebrating their 35th Anniversary in 2025, Leftover Salmon reaffirms their status as the most legendary of the bluegrass-rooted jam bands with their new studio album, Let’s Party About It.

Once again recording at Compass Sound Studio (formerly Glaser Sound Studio, aka “Hillbilly Central” and the birthplace of Outlaw Country), the band is joined by special guests Sam Bush (fiddle, mandolin), Jason Carter (fiddle), Jeff Coffin (saxophone), and more.

For those unaware, Leftover Salmon holds an iconic place in the legacy of jam bands, emerging as one of the genre’s first pioneers with a unique blend of bluegrass, rock, and improvisational jams. Formed in the late 1980s in Boulder, Colorado, their sound combined the traditional roots of bluegrass with elements of folk, rock, Cajun, and jazz, in the process creating a dynamic and energetic style that pushed the boundaries of both bluegrass and jam-grass.

Leftover Salmon influenced a generation of musicians with their eclectic approach and dedication to live, spontaneous music-making, earning a legacy as one of the genre’s foundational acts for defining the spirit of improvisational music and community connection.

1. Big Wheel [2:53]
2. Twisted Pine (feat. Del McCoury) [4:19]
3. Good Dog [5:03]
4. Salmon Scales [3:43]
5. Shine On [3:37]
6. Let’s Party About It [2:59]
7. River Takes Me [3:47]
8. Mud Season [3:33]
9. Redbird [2:52]
10. Storms [4:04]
11. Gettin’ It Done [3:37]

Recorded by Matt Coles and Joel McKinney at Compass Sound Studio, Nashville, TN, November 10th-13th, 2024, this resoundingly impassioned new recording opens on the fervent bluegrass rock of Big Wheel and then brings us the languishing folk and fiddle Twisted Pine (featuring American bluegrass musician Del McCoury), the funky blues of Good Dog, the banjo-driven Salmon Scales, before the low slung Shine On is brought forth.

Up next is one of my own personal favorites the rhythmically succulent titular Let’s Party About It and that is then backed seamlessly by an aching yearn that threads through River Takes Me, the countrified Mud Season and the upbeat and enjoyable romp Redbird, the set rounding out on the New Orleans-hued Storms, closing on the impassioned blues rock of Gettin’ It Done.

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