Bluegrass is having a moment. Billy Strings sells out arenas, Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan incorporate string band sounds into stadium shows, and there’s a crop of rising bluegrass stars — some of whom are crossing over into pop and country in unexpected ways.
Alabama-bred bluegrass outfit Mountain Grass Unit has jammed with Kesha at Bonnaroo and recorded in the Bahamas with Shania Twain. The quartet’s members, all in their 20s, often draw a younger crowd at live shows. So they understand why more people their age are getting drawn to the old-timey genre that’s steeped in a tradition that dates back to the 1940s.
“In the increasingly digital world, I think that young people appreciate the raw, acoustic and vintage feel of these older tunes,” upright-bassist Sam Wilson says. “It’s an escape from social media and the digital [world]. It’s something that’s real — and it’s as real as it gets.”
The band is fresh off a weekend at Hulaween, the Florida music festival that blends EDM with jam bands and indie rock, during a late-October video chat. It’s notable that three of the four members have Grateful Dead memorabilia on the walls behind them; the band is known for throwing covers into live gigs.
“I feel like it’s a continuation of counterculture,” fiddler Josiah Nelson says of modern bluegrass. “That’s a big part of the jam scene in general, but especially the grassroots nature of bluegrass. It’s people who don’t want to necessarily be part of popular culture.”
Except, of course, when Mountain Grass Unit plays with pop and country stars such as Kesha and Twain, or Texas singer-songwriter Hayes Carll, who just released the collaborative train song “Railroad River Junction” with the band.
“Those are kind of oddballs,” singer and mandolin player Drury Anderson says. “Those go into the absurdity baskets, where kind of anything goes. Because you’ve got this feeling already that people are not listening to bluegrass to the level that you are, by any means. And those are nice because you’re just playing what you play, and whatever you play is sort of a new introduction for a lot of people to bluegrass, whatever that may be.”
Each member of Mountain Grass Unit — which plays the 9:30 Club on Sunday — came to bluegrass differently. Guitarist Luke Black, whose lightning-fast licks are a hallmark of the group’s improv-heavy live shows, fell in love with the genre when he started taking banjo lessons in first grade and became infatuated with traditionals such as “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and “Rocky Top.” Anderson started playing mandolin at a young age but was more drawn to Macklemore than Bill Monroe.
Growing up as childhood friends through their parents, Anderson, 22, and Black, 24, got taken under the wing of Alabama guitarist Allen Tolbert and formed a duo, Andblack, that played local restaurants and middle school parties. Wilson, 24, who came from a rock background, joined shortly after, and for a spell they plugged in as a rock band (something they still do from time to time). By 2018, while still in middle school, they were playing bluegrass again — officially as Mountain Grass Unit — and taking whatever gig they could. Nelson, the elder statesman of the band at 29, grew up in the Texas fiddle scene and joined MGU in 2024.
The band has been hitting the road hard since, jamming with one of their heroes, Strings, in the process. “He’s a huge influence,” Black says. “He’s also just a great guy.”
MGU released its second album, “Appalachian Smoke,” in August. Produced by Grammy winner Vance Powell (Phish, Chris Stapleton), it’s a slick, 13-track album of catchy bluegrass tunes with a modern sensibility. Because the band had just reallocated to Nashville, it was the first time they had months to write and record with a real producer.
That time allowed the songs to simmer. Case in point: They resurrected a five-year-old campfire jam voice memo and turned it into the catchy album standout “Homebound Troubador.” Ultimately, the new record feels like a proper statement and a reflection of their raucous, anything-goes concerts.
“The idea was that the songs were not only written to encapsulate the spirit of our live show and be upbeat,” Wilson says, “but when you go to a live show, especially bluegrass, it’s supposed to flow with the energy of the songs.”
“In the end, we’re artists,” Anderson adds. “That’s what being an artist is: taking everything and adding the colors that you want to add.”
Sunday at 7 p.m. at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. 930.com. $32.50.
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