Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country Christmas Jam

Vince Herman is out to have some fun. 33 years after founding Leftover Salmon, Vince released an album of his own and hit the road to play a batch of songs developed in his new Nashville home. It’s a bit of a departure from the “Salmon sound” as he digs into his idea of what country music is. There’s some bluegrass and Cajun influences and honky tonk ballads all piled atop great players taking the tunes for a ride.

“With his immersion into Nashville, Herman’s also peeling back the pages of Music City history, harkening back to the early days of country music, where the genre lines were blurred or not yet defined by record labels and marketing teams,” writes Rolling Stone’s Garret K. Woodward.

“I’m gonna try to keep my solo repertoire separate from Leftover Salmon so people can expect something different than they would see at a Salmon show,” says Vince to Relix Magazine’s Mike Greenhaus. “I want them to live in different worlds, but one of the reasons I made this record is that I’m a fan of country music. And I’ve always thought of Salmon as a country band. You can look at the Grateful Dead as a country band—to me, bluegrass, cajun music, ballads and all that stuff is what makes up country music… But, though I’ve always seen Salmon as somewhat of a country band, the country and jamband worlds are absolutely miles apart—not so much musically, but culturally. And at this point, so much of this country needs to come together, with all the walls between the different sides and all the perceived little niches that we’re supposed to stay in, man. We need to come together as a country. And music can play a big role in that. So I guess you can say that I want to bring the hippies to country. I want to say, ‘We’re kind of doing the same thing here, folks. Can we talk?’”

Vince formed a craft band consisting of some of Nashville’s finest musicians, all also vocalists, to take on the road! Joining him in the Vince Herman Band for their Fall tour dates are Nathan Graham (upright bass), Dakota Holden (pedal steel), Ian Cory (banjo/fiddle), his son Silas Herman (mandolin/guitar), Alex Johnson (drums) [Sept Tour], and Lawrence Nemenz (drums) [October/November].