free tickets to Stringdusters at Pink Garter

By Jim Stanford on January 24, 2012

High country bluegrass: Stringdusters aim to get the Garter stomping.

That collective “aaah” heard ’round Jackson Hole this week hasn’t just been about snowfall. Music fans are relieved that the Pink Garter Theater finally has a slate of shows for the winter. The shredding continues, on and off the slopes.

Expect hoots and hollers tonight when the Garter gets rolling with The Infamous Stringdusters, the bluegrass troupe from Nashville, Tenn., who generated a bigger buzz than the beer garden at last summer’s Targhee Bluegrass Festival. Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers, alt-country and soul rockers from San Francisco, will share the bill.

The show is the first in what should be a quality series at the Pink Garter combining old favorites (Leftover Salmon, Young Dubs) with fresh talent (Monophonics, He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister). Construction crews have been busy building the adjacent bar, The Rose, grand opening of which is set for Presidents’ Weekend, Feb. 17-19. The theater also has gotten a makeover.

In conjunction with promoter Poppa Presents, we’re giving away two tickets. In the comments, provide a full name and say you’re in. Two winners will by chosen by random drawing at 3 p.m.; each will receive one ticket.

The Stringdusters have been gaining a following locally since 2008 with their performances at Targhee and the Knotty Pine. Like contemporaries Yonder Mountain and Railroad Earth, the five-man band can make the strings dance with amazing dexterity; writer and musician Aaron Davis calls them “bold and daring.” Check out the above rendition of “Y2K” in Portland last fall.

The opening band, Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers, is not to be overlooked. Singer Bluhm fronts a quintet featuring her husband, Tim, guitarist for The Mother Hips. The group recorded a few videos after piling into the tour van recently. Listen to them tear up Funkadelic’s classic “Can You Get to That,” from the album Maggot Brain: