Ben Kaufmann plays upright bass with the Colorado progressive bluegrass quartet Yonder Mountain String Band. His father was a musician too, the leader of a jazz ensemble. So what kind of artists did young Kaufmann fawn over in his youth? Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers? Or maybe John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie? Nope. None of the above.
"I was listening to the worst music to come out of the '80s," he confesses, "Mötley Crüe and really bad KISS albums." His favorites were virtuoso shredders like Yngwie Malmsteen and Mr. Big. Although his dad gave him a copy of Crossing the Tracks, the 1979 debut by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, teenage Kaufmann gave the banjo whiz only a cursory listen before filing the disc—which, coincidentally, was just reissued this week by Rounder Records—away. "The music was too complicated," he says. "I didn't understand it."
Fast-forward to his freshman year of college. Kaufmann decided to give that neglected copy of Crossing a second chance. "I put it in again and went, 'Why in the world haven't I been listening to this?'" He started buying up tons of bluegrass, primarily second-generation acts like Hot Rize, the Seldom Scene, and John Hartford. "For a long period of time, bluegrass was the only music I listened to."
From there, a musician-wanted ad led him to the fledgling Yonder Mountain String Band. Today, the quartet—who headline the Showbox this Thursday, October 6—reaches far more fans than many of the artists who inspired Kaufmann. Yet he is careful to qualify that YMSB definitely considers itself a bluegrass band, despite other pegs that have been applied to them. "We've found ourselves relegated to the jam-band scene, and that turns me off, as does a lot of the music coming out of that scene," he opines.
Kaufmann is also wary of some of the atrocities committed in the name of bluegrass since the resurgence of interest in the genre. While YMSB did contribute "Think for Yourself" to the forthcoming compilation This Bird Has Flown, a 40th-anniversary celebration of the Beatles' Rubber Soul, Kaufmann expresses pointed criticism for the deluge of quickie bluegrass tributes to acts like Blink 182, Metallica, Neil Diamond, and Radiohead that have flooded the market since O Brother, Where Art Thou? "People who love Metallica may pick up a record like that, and not only hate it, but vow that the banjo is the enemy of popular music!"
"This music is about blood and guts," he adds, "but it is so easy to make it sound corny and cheesy."
With a new album, produced by Tom Rothrock (Beck, Elliott Smith) and released via a mid-sized L.A. label, due in stores next spring, Kaufmann hopes YMSB will continue to reach new fans, and transcend niche-act status. "For years, we've made our living and our name by touring all the time. I'm ready for the opportunity to succeed in a different way. I want us to be that bluegrass band that totally rocked out everybody on the radio!"
