Eat, Drink & Entertain

VINCE HERMAN
Things are just more fun when Vince Herman is around, and since helping co-found Leftover Salmon over a quarter century ago, Leftover Salmon shows have always been the most fun. Herman moved to Boulder, CO from Morgantown, West Virginia, where he was attending West Virginia University, in 1985. On his first night in town, he met his future bandmate Drew Emmitt at a show for Emmitt’s group at the time, the Left Hand String Band.
The two struck up an immediate friendship. For a short time after moving to Boulder, Herman joined The Left Hand String Band, marking the first time the two would play together in a band. Herman soon left The Left Hand String Band to pursue his own musical vision. He formed the Salmon Heads, a Cajun-jug band that tried to wrangle all of Herman’s disparate musical influences, Cajun, Calypso, Ska, and bluegrass into a coherent musical statement. His vision was fully realized on New Year’s Eve 1989 when the Salmon Heads and The Left Hand String Band united forces for a show.
The show was a rousing success and the energy created on stage that evening was something special, and a new band, Leftover Salmon, was born. It is a band that truly matched Herman’s vision and allowed him to showcase his wildly, theatrical stage antics and skills. Nearly thirty-years later those antics and skills are still on display at every show they play.

DREW EMMITT
If the Mount Rushmore of progressive bluegrass mandolin players is ever built, Drew Emmitt’s image will be on it alongside fellow legends like Sam Bush and David Grisman, who he channels every time he steps on stage. Emmitt got his start at an early age in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado taking lessons from Hot Rize’s Tim O’Brien. He soon joined the progressive bluegrass group The Left Hand String Band, and remade the band through his desire to combine rock ‘n’ roll and bluegrass.