Listing a bit on their bluegrass foundation in the direction of modern folkgrass, alt country, and gypsy jazz, ThaMuseMeant combines a rural twang and a sneaky quality of mischief, sinister parlors, and shadowy back corners of smoky pubs, deftly captured and joyfully presented. Formerly an acclaimed jam band, ThaMuseMeant was reborn in late 2003 as a string quartet following a three year hiatus.

The group's new incarnation revolves around the playing of Nathan Moore (guitar/vocals) and David Tiller (mandolin), wrapped around the spooky, distinctive vocals of Aimee Curl (bass/vocals). Rounding out the foursome is fiddler Enion Pelta, who first appeared with the reconfigured band on their new album, Silver Seed (Frogville). While the quartet has evolved into something less rock and jam than before (David calls them a "sassy string band"), it retains close kinship to the spirited music and improvisation that always defined ThaMuseMeant.

Sharing the bill is the legendary Baby Gramps. Drawing on Delta blues, old-time country, novelty Klezmer, early Hollywood, Tuvan throat singing, and contemporary improvisation, Gramps evokes Uncle Dave Macon, Blind Blake, Ornette Coleman, Captain Beefheart, and Popeye, all in one breath. With wild, extemporaneous Tuvan-influenced vocals, he scats the blues three notes at a time, and suspends conventional notions of timing, timbre, tempo, and pitch with an inimitable scribbling technique on his National steel guitar. Hoodwinked into believing that CDs would play on a phonograph turntable, Gramps recently released his first two albums, Same Ol' Timeously and Hossradish.