Bluegrass Unlimited magazine describes High Country as "one of the lonesomest, hard-drivingest traditional bluegrass bands alive," capturing the spirit of classic bluegrass and keeping it fresh and lively. A band that always delights us with its driving rhythms, deft picking, and soulful singing, tonight High Country joins the Freight as we each celebrate the 40th anniversary of our respective founding back in the summer of 1968.

Tonight, California's longest-running bluegrass band features selections from their recently compiled retrospective CD, High Country: The First 25 Years, which includes material from stretching from 1968 through 1993. More recently, High Country's seventh and most recent recording effort, The Earthquake (Strictly Country), features the updated line-up, and firmly reinforces its status as California's premier band in the Bill Monroe and Stanley Brothers tradition, with its vital mix of powerful originals and standards, from blues to breakdowns to gospels sung in close harmony.

Tonight, founder member and mandolinist Butch Waller is joined by Larry Cohea on banjo, bassist Glenn Dauphin, fiddler Tom Bekeny, Bob Waller on guitar, and Jim Mintun on guitar and dobro, plus other guests from the band's long and venerable history.