This weekend at Newport Folk Festival, Ryan Adams will debut a new acoustic band with The Infamous Stringdusters and Nicki Bluhm joining the fold. The ensemble made a surprise debut at Telluride Bluegrass Festival back in June, performing a host of Adams classics like “To Be Young,” “Let it Ride,” “Oh My Sweet Carolina” and more obscure cuts “Pearls on a String,” “Trains,” “Bartering Lines” and a cover of Dio’s “Holy Diver.” 

While this may seem like a unique and out of the blue collaboration, Chris Pandolfi of the Dusters says that while it was a bit “out of left field” for the bluegrass rockers, Adams’ music contains that “old school bluegrass” element that will make it a seamless transition. “It’s going to be rootsy string band meets Ryan Adams with a dash of bluegrass on top,” he says. 

Read the rest of Pandolfi’s thoughts below as we check in with him prior to the first gig in Telluride.

This seems like a rather unlikely collaboration, so let’s start with how it all came together.

It was a little out of left field for us and it wasn’t necessarily something we were pursuing or on our radar screen. Needless to say, we’re always up for a cool and different collaboration. This wasn’t something we were seeking out.

Nicki has been doing some work with Ryan and, from what I understand through talking to Nicki, he has some solo gigs booked and was sort of thinking maybe I want to go in a different direction with this. He had this idea that he wanted to have an acoustic band. At the time, I think through his connection with Nicki, he was soliciting some advice and information from her and through her connection with us she suggested The Dusters which is cool because Nicki has been around our scene and she’s played with all the acoustic bands.

We were definitely flattered by that and just psyched. Ryan is, to me, I know he’s known as a songwriter, he’s hard to classify as an artist. He’s someone who just has this intense and really noticeable force, just this energy behind his songs. He does other forms of art as well, too. He’s hard to classify. He’s someone who just really makes quality stuff. That was one of the big things that attracted us to the opportunity, not to mention the fact that, some of us were definitely Ryan Adams fans predating news of this. Just to team up with someone who is a real integrity artist and really cares about making something quality and all those good things I associate with Ryan.

Similar to things that I associate with old school bluegrass. It’s really about the art form and perfecting this beautiful thing regardless of whether or not people loved it or if it was viable in popular sense. There are a lot of reasons were excited, but essentially the opportunity came to us through Nicki and we’re excited to get to work on it.

What’s the back and forth been like between all parties thus far as it relates to song selection and show structure? 

I have had some back and forth with Ryan about what songs we’re going to do and what might sound good in this setting. The list is still big and needs to be trimmed down, but I think there is some brand new stuff on there that nobody’s ever heard and some classic Ryan Adams.

It’s cool, as far as the direction of the music and sound of the band in talking to Ryan, it’s become really clear that he knows bluegrass. He knows the Stanley Brothers and he knows the Carter Family and he knows what quality picking sounds like and the harmonies and the structure of the music and how plaintive, but also just deep and powerful it can be. Some of his musical groove, he says the Carter Brothers and the Stanley Brothers were around a lot growing up. He knows his stuff and I think musically it’s going to be rootsy string band meets Ryan Adams with a dash of bluegrass on top.

I feel like a lot of people forget that he grew up in the hills of North Carolina and has recorded with people like Dave Rawlings, etc. 

Absolutely, people associate with him with much more of this hip, hipster strain of music, especially with the covering of the Taylor Swift album and things like that. He’s got old school bluegrass in him too. If you listen to his music, it’s country rock essentially. It’s rock and roll but it’s got those tones and it’s got a twang, an edge, that brings the music to life. Taken out of context, I don’t think people really associate that with the larger country roots movement because of where his music has appeared. If you just listen to it and judge it just based on what it is, it fits great with a string band. It has all those essential elements, sort of old school essential rock and roll.

You mentioned some of you guys are fans—how do you turn off that fan mindset and focus your approach?

Like any gig, we’re going to learn the stuff and be ready to do whatever. I think one of the reasons that the Dusters make a lot of sense for this is because we were a quick study and we’ve got influences that run a real live gamut. Unlike some other bands, who are really specialized in playing mainly their own music, one thing we’ve shown over the years is there’s a lot of versatility and a lot of flexibility. We can do a lot of different things with just our acoustic instruments.

We’re learning the stuff, but as far as the musical approach, I think we’re all going to wait until we’re all in the same room and try some things and the hope is that it’s all just very natural and we don’t have to reach very far to find the thing we all sort of mutually agree is just sitting right there for us. We just got to plug it in and make the music.

Are you one of the Ryan Adams fans in the band?

Oh yeah, he’s awesome. I don’t know all of his stuff but there are a few albums, mainly Easy Tiger, that I have listened to a lot and sing all of the words, that kind of thing. He’s so good you don’t even have to be a diehard Ryan Adams fan to have had a phase where you probably deeply ingested his music. That’s sort of the case for me, I remember hearing that first time and, “Oh man, this is good.” Next thing I know, it had crept onto my all-time list.

Going back to the relation between bluegrass and his music, as someone who has extensive experience in the genre, how prevalent are some of those influences to you?

I noticed a lot, but what I’ve mainly noticed about his music and I think this is one of the really special thing about it is, the first thing you notice is, it’s Ryan Adams, he’s got his own sound. I think a lot of that is, of course, predicated on the songwriting but also on his voice, his singing is something really, really special. I think it’s equal parts uniquely his own, but also, it has those elements.

It was really on these listens though here, getting ready to do this project. There’s music that I listen to that falls into this category of music I play and then there’s a lot of music that you listen to that falls into a another category. When I’m listening to the old school bluegrass or even more modern stuff, I say, “Oh, I can relate to that because it’s the music that I play.” Then there is this other school of music, that is not as tied to what I do and I would have originally put him in the latter. The music that I listen to as it’s going down, I’m not hearing the solos out of context, I’m not thinking what the chord changes are, and I’m just hearing it. It’s funny now that we’re getting ready to play this stuff and I’m learning it and I’m going back and I’m thinking, “Oh man, this is like, could be quintessential Stringduster music or bluegrass or country.” It’s in there but you got to kind of look pass what the first thing that is so unique about his stuff, which like I said, it’s Ryan Adams music. Once you delve in there and start checking it out, it’s got a lot of that old country rootsy stuff and on these current listens is when I really sort of realized a lot of that.

As you study the material, what are some of the most challenging aspects?

It’s less chord changes and more that sort of ever constant question of, how do I take what I do and add it to what this music is to make something great, to make something better, make it better than it was before. Like any music it’s all about the song. For me personally, what is the ideal role of the banjo here? What can I do to really support the music? That’s the challenge.

It’s sort of enhanced this time around with Ryan’s music because these songs are so strong, so tried and true. They’re songs that are already in your head. Man, how do I bring what I do as a musician to this? It’s challenging because it’s not readily obvious like it is on a lot of bluegrass stuff where you just plug in and play and do your role. It’s more constantly searching for, how do I support the music and how do I add to this and make it better? How do I take this song and make it great?

It’s the same challenge as a lot of music, it’s just now applied to some really tried and true stuff. It’s not like we’re learning and writing new Stringdusters songs. We’re playing some of the most awesome music that’s been written in the last ten, fifteen years. There’s a responsibility there, there’s a challenge there, we embrace that.