The title track to The Infamous Stringdusters’ 2007 album, Fork In The Road, begins with the lyrics, “There’s a fork in the road, can’t seem to make up my mind.” On Friday, January 17th at Portland, Oregon’s Crystal Ballroom, The Stringdusters embodied these lyrics, teasing the song right out of the gate, and coming back to “Fork” several times during the set until they finally went down that road and played the song in full to close the set.
The crowd at the sold out show was fully engaged with all the hooks, the musicianship, and the interplay between the members of the Grammy Award-winning quintet — Andy Falco (guitar), Chris Pandolfi (banjo), Andy Hall (dobro), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle), and Travis Book (double bass).
Yonder Mountain String Band opened the show, and seem to have poured a little fuel on their long-burning fire with the addition of mandolinist Nick Piccinini. Members of Yonder came out to help with the encore, which consisted of “Not Fade Away,” and the Yonder classic “Traffic Jam.”
A full setlist and photo gallery can be found below.
One Set:
Fork Tease (FT) > If You’re Gonna Love Someone > Big River, Long Time Going (FT) > Place That I Call Home, Steam Powered Aereoplane (Disco FT) > Gravity > Water Wagon, Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, Another One Like You (FT) > Night On The River > Well Well (FT), Let It Go, Truth and Love > Fork In The Road
Encore: Not Fade Away^, Traffic Jam#
^ w/Ben Kaufmann on bass, Nick Piccinini on mandolin, Dave Johnston on banjo, Adam Aijala on guitar, Travis on vocals
#same as ^ but Ben & Travis dueling bass & Ben on vocals
Set and encore: 120 minutes
