Burning River Band

All your basic jam-band ingredients are here: songs grounded in country and folk, cheerful vocals, plentiful good vibes, and even more plentiful instrumental choruses. This is a genre with clearly defined expectations, and the Burning River Band delivers the goods on all fronts.

Occasional member Dave Mayfield fuses mandolin and banjo with the usual lineup of guitarists John Welton and Sean Jenkins, bassist Andy Shepherd, and drummer Erin Sullivan. He's a tasty addition, as evidenced on the fleet, fluid choruses he trades with Jenkins on the leadoff track, "Redwood." Though the bass is a tad underrepresented in the mix, the continuously crisp play of the rhythm section is key to the band's sound. Welton's scruffy, congenial vocals are tailor-made for the laid-back festival atmosphere in which the jam-band aesthetic was born. Hot stuff.