Progressive bluegrass outfit Yonder Mountain String Band [ tickets ] has a new live album on deck and just launched a spring tour to support it.

The trek continues tonight (4/3) in Memphis, TN, heads across the US to the West Coast and includes more than a half-dozen gigs booked around California into late April. Shows include San Francisco's Green Apple Festival to celebrate Earth Day and a two-night stand in Crystal Bay, NV.

Yonder Mountain String Band [ tickets ] is also starting to assemble its summer outing, with festival dates including Tennessee's Bonnaroo, Colorado's Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Michigan's Rothbury Music Festival already on the books. In addition, the band will spend three days (July 18-20) hosting and performing at the seventh annual North West String Summit festival in North Plains, OR. More summer dates are on the way, according to YMSB's publicist. The group's current itinerary is listed below.

On April 15, Yonder Mountain String Band--known for its high-energy, improvisational live shows--will drop its latest live set, "Mountain Tracks: Volume 5." The double-CD collection, released on the group's own Frog Pad Records, includes a concert recorded last year in Columbus, OH, and a compilation of live tunes from the last few years.

The set follows the band's 2006 self-titled album, which marked its fourth studio effort and debut for Vanguard Records. That album, produced by Tom Rothrock (James Blunt, Foo Fighters), for the first time, mixed drum beats in with YMSB's usual instrumentation of banjo, bass, mandolin and guitar. The group expects to record a new studio set with Rothrock later this year, according to its publicist.

The members of Yonder Mountain String Band--guitarist Adam Aijala, mandolinist Jeff Austin, banjo player Dave Johnston and bassist Ben Kaufmann--are all Colorado transplants from the Midwest or Northeast who grew up on rock music and discovered bluegrass during college. With little radio support, they've managed to build a strong grassroots following through touring and word-of-mouth.