This bunch of long-haired country boys turned the Field of Heaven all spacy, with extended country bluegrass jams worthy of the Grateful Dead in a set that lasted upwards of an hour and a half. For the entire gig, the five band members stood in row at the front of the stage, guitar, banjo, mandolin, standup bass and a slide guitar worn on a shoulder strap but held at an angle and played tabletop style. Please note, there is no drummer in this band. They don’t need one, with the bass doing all it needs to keep the time. Also, with this kind of lineup, the five of them could walk into any barn in the world and just start a gig right there. Just sayin’.

The songs themselves were probably more country than bluegrass, more ballads than stomps. The banjo is always fast, but they somehow kept it in check, so tunes veered more to soulful than the footloose. And towards the end, the jams got longer and more psychedelic. The Allman Brothers woulda’ been proud.

The guys also showed a lot of respect to the festival and their Japanese fans. They dedicated one song, “Somebody Help Me”, to Jack Johnson, who played earlier in the day. And later on, they addressed the crowd, “If there really are multiple lives, I hope that some of mine are Japanese,” before going on to express love for the country, the people, and the culture of Japan. Then they launched into a gigantic jam that 15 or 20 minutes later ended another great year of performances at the Field of Heaven.