The Onion’s AV Club has a long-running series named “Undercover,” where a visiting artist covers a song from a list of 25 staff-selected favorites. These songs range wildly from Kanye West to Tom Waits, so bands often have to stretch far out of their comfort zone to make the cover work.

After covering some amazing STS9 shows over the years, I cannot say that I am surprised to report that this show was a dance party filled with beautiful scenery (in more ways than one), an upbeat git down fest, and a very unique combination of musical genres that can only define one band. The reason why I like them so much is because of their diversity and constant dance beats. They combine tribal, electronic, jazz, disco, and funk, which leaves their fans reeling and grinning.

While Colorado-based string rebels Yonder Mountain String Band never seem to stop touring, the boys recently managed to fit some well-rehearsed studio time into their seemingly endless schedule to record their self-produced album YMSB EP ’13, which is due out October 8^th on the band’s own Frog Pad Records. Recorded entirely from the road, the four-track EP features one song written by each member of YMSB.

After kicking off what some are calling the Fare Thee Well Tour with two nights at Red Rocks, it was clear walking up the ramps that there was a sustained energy ready to boil over on Saturday night. After three consecutive late summers on the rocks, Furthur brought out all of the tricks on this run, and finally decided to not only give us the best of, like they had in previous years, but also lots of songs they’d never dusted off in Colorado.

Let's call a spade a spade—this is the Hipster Sound in its purest form, for better or worse. Arp’s More is British Invasion presented by The Strokes, with a touch of “Penny Lane” derivative on keys. You with me so far? Bueno.Now, the man behind the creation, Alexis Georgopolos, and his people will remind you this is a very New York album—(of course it is)—and they’re quite right.

I have walked so far, so far...I’ll concede, I suppose it’s easy to get a little jaded to old-hand refinement these days, what with the driving influx of fresh bubblegum content fit for chewing in three-minute stretches. For those artists—including our own Susanna and her most recent partner Ensemble neoN—who dive into deep cuts as a rule and not an exception, the present state of the union can be suffocating.

In the midst of his Many Rivers Crossed Tour, Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Cliff made his way into recently devastated Boulder, Colorado for a show filled with his politically and culturally distinct classics, and a history lesson not only about his life but the music through which he‘s seen the world.

1. Gregg Allman looks like the kind of people he sings about. This isn’t meant in a disparaging way. The man just has a lot of miles on his face – character lines, you could call them. And you feel that each line and crag in that face could tell a hundred stories. I’m not sure if Mick Jagger lives a single line in any of his songs anymore. But you get the feeling Gregg Allman still does. “I don’t own the clothes I’m wearing, and the road goes on forever.”2.

No other performer in bluegrass, living or dead, has shown more devoted revere for their specific roots than Del McCoury. When I interviewed Del for Grateful Web last year he explained that though he is thrilled that bluegrass is bigger today than it was back in the 40s and 50s, that nothing could replace that 50,000 watt clear channel radio station that aired performances from the Grand Ole’ Opry.

Type I: “I highly recommend getting this show. It blows night one out of the water. Man, now I can't wait for tomorrow after that display.” - Red

Type II: “Not bad 3 day run. expected way more from the boys knowing the 2012 shows were epic. Highlights: Sand, Piper, Chalkdust, legalize it, divided sky, moma dance. other than that tho average shows.” – dude