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By L. Ken Wolgamott Last Word Features October 03. 2014 12:01AM Leftover Salmon plays Applegate Lodge Leftover Salmon didn’t set out to be influential trend-setter when it got together nearly a quarter-century ago. Leftover Salmon Leftover Salmon is a jam band based in Boulder, Colo. It plays a blend of bluegrass, rock, country and Cajun zydeco. Photo courtesy of Alicia J. Rose Leftover Salmon didn’t set out to be influential trend-setter when it  got together nearly a quarter-century ago. “It’s not like we positioned ourselves to be a jam band over a  bluegrass band,” says guitarist and band co-founder Vince Herman during a  telephone interview. “We were just guys from ski towns trying to  make a living. We managed to come out with something — I’m not sure  what the title is. We call it ‘polyethnic Cajun slamgrass.’ ” Nor was the Leftover Salmon sound calculated to appeal to the fans  that had followed the band members’ previous groups. “When we first started doing this people were like, ‘Really, you guys  play bluegrass with drums and electric instruments? Really? Who’s  going to like that?' ” says fiddle and mandolin player Drew Emmitt, the  band’s other co-founder, during a separate telephone interview. Well, it turns out a whole lot of people like it. Formed in 1989, Leftover Salmon began expanding its range outside  Colorado a couple years later, developing an ever-growing legion of  devoted followers who would turn up each time the band hit a town.  By the mid-'90s, Leftover Salmon was signed to Hollywood Records,  releasing its signature album “Euphoria” in 1997 and putting out four  more albums on the Disney-owned label. The band, along with rock pianist Bill Payne, will play two shows — 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 7-8 — at the Applegate Lodge, 15100 Highway 238, Applegate. Tickets cost $25. See www.liveatthegate.com or call 541-846-6690. By 2005, when the band went on an open-ended hiatus that lasted for  close to five years, Leftover Salmon had a national following and  inspired dozens of bands to follow in its footsteps.  And a whole lot more bands have followed in the footsteps of the  Colorado outfit. “All I can really say is when we started the Leftover Salmon thing in  1989, there was nobody else doing anything like us,” Emmitt says. “I  think we inspired bands to do something similar. What we were doing is  going out in a school bus and playing shows. We didn’t have a label or  anything like that. We were just doing it. We might have inspired  other bands to do that.” Leftover Salmon also clearly inspired others to combine bluegrass and  old-time string band sounds with rock-rooted jams. The "polyethnic  Cajun slamgrass" label is intended to sum up the band’s mixture of  bluegrass, rock, country and Cajun/zydeco. But bluegrass remains at  the root of the sound. “We’ve definitely played bluegrass most of our life and have gotten to  play with some of our heroes like Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas  and Del McCoury,” Emmitt says. “We didn’t become a jam band and learn  to play bluegrass. It was the other way around.” As is the case with every jam band from the Grateful Dead onward,  Leftover Salmon (which also includes bassist Greg Garrison, drummer  Jose Martinez and banjo player Andy Thorn) plays a different show each  night. “We have quite a catalog of songs to draw from and try to mix it up,”  Emmitt says. “We’re playing quite a few from (2012 album) ‘Aquatic  Hitchhiker’ and the new release we just put out this year digitally.  But we try to rotate songs as much as possible to keep it interesting  — for us and the audience. That’s kind of a jam band tradition.” So how did the band come up with its unforgettable, perhaps regrettable name? As 1989 turned into 1990, Left Hand String Band, a bluegrass outfit  led by Emmitt, joined forces with jug band the Salmon Heads, led by  Herman, to play a Boulder-area New Year’s Eve Show.  They needed a name and quick. So they took Salmon from the Salmon  Heads, the Left of the string band, and added Over . They didn’t expect the band or the name to last. “If we’d had any idea we could have come up with a much better  name,” Herman says. “We thought it was going to be one gig when we  started. Now we’re stuck with it.” http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141003/ENTERTAINMENT/141009996 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->