In the summer of 1999, the Hot Buttered Rum String Band set out to rediscover the high lonesome sound of mountain music. During a month of hiking, climbing, pickin', and singin' in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, HBRSB engendered a new style: High Altitude Bluegrass. The sound they brought back down to San Francisco has been lifting people above the smog for the past two years. Hot Buttered Rum is composed of four musicians who studied music in school, in Ireland, India, and Africa, and in countless jam sessions at bluegrass festivals around the country. The roots of their inspiration, however, drink from modern American life, and a yearning for the simple life of the mountains. The band brings music from 13,000 feet to sea-level with the enthusiasm and clarity of a tumbling stream of glacial melt. The players, all of whom contribute to the vocal mix, are Bryan Horne on double bass, Nat Keefe on guitar, Zachary Matthews on mandolin, and Erik Yates on accordian and woodwinds.