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 hikin', pickin', and singin' in the Sierra Nevadas, HBRSB engendered a style they call "high altitude bluegrass." Bringing their music back to sea-level with all the enthusiasm of a tumbling stream of glacial melt, the youthful quintet have been using it to lift Bay Area residents above the smog ever since. The band's members -- Bryan Horne on double bass, Nat Keefe on guitar, Zac Matthews on mandolin, Aaron Redner on fiddle, and Erik Yates on accordian and woodwinds -- studied music in school, in Ireland, India, and Africa, and in countless jam sessions at bluegrass festivals around the country. HBRSB recently released its second album, In These Parts, featuring a tasty blend of original and traditional numbers that mixes bluegrass, folk, jazz, reggae, and rock into a concoction every bit as intoxicating as their name suggests.