Tales from the Campfire

Welcome to Leftover Salmon's campfire. Sit down, take your shoes off and get comfortable.

But don't get too comfortable, because when the Boulder, Colorado-based band begins to play their Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass, they transform from five mellow, laid-back guys into the fastest band in the world, and attempts to resist dancing usually prove futile.

Tonight at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, the band's second show of a two-night stand at the venue, the campfire is in for a bit of a shake-up, as a special guest is scheduled to join the party -- legendary blues harmonica player and singer Sugar Blue. The band also has Pete Sears, who once played with Rod Stewart and now tours with ex-Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, sitting in on keyboards.

"The second set is pretty heavy on blues tunes. They're all different kinds of grooves," says Vince Herman, Leftover Salmon's paunchy, bearded vocalist/guitarist. Herman sports an "I-just-sneaked-a-treat-from-the-cookie-jar" grin as he works on tonight's set list. "Let's do 'Little Red Rooster' then 'Doin' My Time.' He'll (Sugar Blue) blow that shit up! Maybe we can get him to play 'Hoochie Coochie Man?' He does a great version of that. Calls it 'Gucci Gucci Man.'"

This is obviously an exciting night for Herman, being able to come into Chicago, call up one of the city's preeminent blues figures, invite him to the show, and actually have him accept the invitation and jam with the band. But incredible experiences like this have become common for Leftover Salmon in 1997, as years of touring and an inexorable devotion to their unique brand of music have brought them into the national spotlight.

First, the band saw their major label debut, Euphoria (Mountain Division/Hollywood Records), hit store shelves. The 11-track album, recorded in Denver with producer Justin Niebank (Blues Traveler, Phish) and mastered in Nashville, combines the soul of bluegrass on tunes such as "Rivers Risin'" and "Cash on the Barrel," Cajun ditties like "Mama Boulet" and the trademark high-energy musical explosions found on "Better."

Then the group toured the country this past summer with the likes of Neil Young and Squirrel Nut Zippers on the H.O.R.D.E. circuit. "It was rock 'n' roll summer camp, sort of like being part of the circus for the summer," says lanky, and also bearded vocalist/mandolin/fiddle/electric guitar player Drew Emmitt. "We played in front of some really great crowds, and in front of a lot of people who wouldn't normally come to see us."

The summer culminated with what Emmitt calls the band's "ultimate show" on September 6 at the Colorado RockyGrass Festival Site in Lyons, Colorado. The band hosted this one-day event, called the HooDoo Bash, at the home of the popular Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival in the mountains right above Boulder. Nearly 10,000 people made it to the show on this beautiful, sunny Colorado summer day, to listen to Leftover Salmon, bluegrass legend Sam Bush, String Cheese Incident, Richard Greene, Druka Trava, the Left Hand String Band and the Zukes of Zydeco.

"Sam Bush came out to play with us. Bluegrass revival means so much to us. It's really what we're all about," Emmitt proudly says. "Sam didn't play his own set. He just came up on stage with us, and we backed him up, playing his tunes. It was amazing -- a very, very high night. It had been a dream of ours to give back to the bluegrass community what we got from it. It was an incredible honor to think that we could help out Sam Bush. All we ever wanted to was hang with these people and play music. For no other reason than just to do it, to experience what it's like to play with great people."

From all this playing, Emmitt, Herman, banjo player Mark Vann, drummer Michael Wooten and bassist Tye North developed Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass. But what exactly is this music?

"Basically, it's something that has culminated between all of us. It's the need to play the kind of music we want to play, but to a crazier, dancing crowd," Emmitt says. "Traditionally, bluegrass has been a listen, sit-down kind of thing. But we've always been about, 'Let's have a great time. Let's pick, but let's get people going. Let's have some fun,' instead of the usual sit-down 'Oh, that was a great piece of music' vibe."

This energy has created a loyal fan base, dreadlocked and tie-dyed, who follow the band from city to city. But a Salmon crowd is not confined to this young neo-hippie scene, as the group's musical prowess and diversity attracts crowds spanning generations.

"It blows our minds that people follow us around, and we've done it by playing styles of music that we like to play -- Cajun, bluegrass and Zydeco," Emmitt says.

Leftover Salmon formed when two bands -- the Left Hand String Bang, which featured Emmitt, and Herman's Salmonheads, decided to join forces in 1989. Soon thereafter, at the annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Emmitt and Herman heard Vann jamming away on the banjo and asked him to join the group. Wooten and North eventually entered the mix, and the group recorded their first studio album, Bridges to Bert, in 1993. Trying to capture their true energy on an album, Salmon made their sophomore release, 1995's Ask The Fish, a live recording from the famed Fox Theater in Boulder.

Now the band constantly tours. "Tye is the youngest man on the bus. We're going to keep on touring until he drops. When he drops we'll be sure to slow down," Herman says before the Vic show, with his shoes still on (he plays barefoot on stage). "We're definitely going to keep on pushing it for a while. This is a weird business though. Things can change overnight."

Every summer, the members of Leftover Salmon spend a weekend camping in the snow-capped mountains surrounding Telluride during the Bluegrass Festival. Their camp, named Camp Howdy, has been known to bring out some of bluegrass's elite, such as David Grisman and Peter Rowan, around the campfire to jam underneath the brilliant stars at 9,000 feet above sea level.

"You know, a lot of the best music that any of us in this group has played has probably occurred around a campfire with a handful of people listening. That's when it's the most magical," Emmitt says.

And it's not half bad when the campfire is a Chicago club with 1,200 guests either.

JASON KORANSKY