Leftover Salmon

Polyethnic Cajun slamgrass

Leftover Salmon came together in Colorado around the end of 1989; Wikipedia says members of the Salmon Heads, Vince Herman, Dave Dorian and Gerry Cavagnaro, joined Drew Emmitt and Glenn Keefe of the Left Hand String Band for a New Year's Eve show at the Eldo in Crested Butte and chose the name on the drive, while Americana UK says December 1989 in Boulder. Herman told Americana UK the music is poly-ethnic Cajun slamgrass, and that means we can do whatever we want, and that had they known it would last this long they could have called it Aerosmith. Mark Vann played banjo from 1989 until his death in March 2002, aged 39; Matt Flinner and then Noam Pikelny followed on banjo, and Andy Thorn has played it since 2010.

Bridges to Bert came in 1992 or 1993, the live Ask the Fish in 1995, with a H.O.R.D.E. tour slot and a Hollywood Records deal; Euphoria (March 18, 1997, produced by Justin Niebank) reached 3 on Billboard's Heatseekers Mountain chart, and The Nashville Sessions (1999) re-imagined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken with guests. O' Cracker Where Art Thou? with Cracker was released on May 6, 2003, produced by David Lowery. The self-titled 2004 album followed, and the band went on hiatus after 2004, reuniting for shows in 2007 including the Telluride Bluegrass Festival on June 24. Aquatic Hitchhiker (2012), High Country (2014), Something Higher (2018), Brand New Good Old Days (2021), Grass Roots (2023) and Let's Party About It (2025) followed, and the DVD Years in Your Ears came in 2006.

Tim Newby's book Leftover Salmon: Thirty Years of Festival! came out in 2019. Newby places them in a lineage from Bill Monroe through the Grateful Dead, Hot Rize and New Grass Revival, and credits them with adding drums to bluegrass; Emmitt names Greensky Bluegrass, the Infamous Stringdusters and Punch Brothers as bands busting things wide open. Setlist.fm tracks 1,837 setlists.