20 years on, The Infamous Stringdusters have matured, but remain spry.
Look, even if jam bands are your bag, it’s hard to argue that they are best suited for studio records. Deadheads, Phishheads, and fans of the seemingly endless slew of today’s like-minded noodlers (Lettuce, Goose, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong) will tell you that the live show is where it’s at. The glut of bootlegs, that have become a cottage industry unto themselves, further indicates that fans of the genre prefer loose live grooves to studio precision.
Bluegrass has always lent itself to improvisation and even jazz-style soloing. In the late 80s, bands like Leftover Salmon, Yonder Mountain String Band, The String Cheese Incident, and even Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (essentially a jazz/grass fusion project) popularised what’s become known as “Jamgrass.” And there was, perhaps unexpectedly, a large and loyal audience craving this hybrid form. Today, Kalamazoo’s Greensky Bluegrass (which features elaborate, Pink Floyd-esque light shows to entertain the bugged-out ‘heads) and Lansing’s Billy Strings pack large theatres and even arenas. (Why Michigan, far from Appalachia, has become such fertile ground for bluegrass is a strange story better explored elsewhere.) More to the point, would The Stanley Brothers, Doc Watson, or the Godfather, Bill Monroe, embrace these new forms, which have strayed so far from their Kentucky “hillbilly music” roots? Probably. And they certainly would appreciate the dedication to the tradition that a band like the Grammy-winning Infamous Stringdusters wear on their (flannel and tie-dyed) sleeves.
The Dusters’ 2026 release, 20/20, marks, as the title and the 20 tracks indicate, the 20th anniversary of the group, and the years on the road as a unit are in full bloom in the songs. The Dusters have had time to ease into their sound (and one another’s playing) like an heirloom rocking chair on a back porch. At 20, they are tight and nimble, and the songcraft has never been better.
Though the Dusters are known for their energetic live shows and ability to stretch and solo, it’s clear that they have worked to strengthen the songs themselves. Life Moves On, and Workingman’s Blues will likely take flight live, but they work on vinyl as compact observations about everyday hardships and persistence. Twenty years has also brought some midlife reckoning to the Dusters’ lyrics. Ageing and mortality figure prominently in this set of songs. “Voices you remember, faces you once knew, Are you holding on to them or are they holding on to you?” Travis Book ruminates in Holding on to You.
The conclusion the Dusters arrive at seems to be that a dogged resignation is only part of the journey; that it’s up to us to decide whether we live in grief or in gratefulness. “Your death is always with you on your shoulder,” sings Jeremy Garrett in Dead Man Walking. “Watching everything you do/It’s your foe playing games forever trying/To outsmart you/Your life depends on which one you feed/The happy or the sulking/It’s all up to you, start making tracks/Dead man walking.”
It’s hard not to like a band with a self-effacing sense of humour, as the Dusters proudly exhibited with their cover of The Cure’s Just Like Heaven (check out the video – it’s a hoot), especially one that so clearly cares about upholding the values of their genre. That said, is 20/20 a great record? The answer is a dodge, but it’s true: you’ll probably just have to catch the tour to see it played live to know.
