Pioneering bluegrass band, The Dillards, make their long-awaited Freight debut tonight! Famed for their seminal role in southern California's country rock movement of the late 1960s, the foursome were also a familiar sight on television at the time in the guise of the pickin', singin' "Darling Family" on The Andy Griffith Show.

The Dillards got their start in the Ozarks (Salem, Missouri to be exact), when brothers Rodney (guitar, dobro) and Doug Dillard (banjo) joined forces with childhood pals Mitch Jayne (double bass) and Dean Webb (mandolin). After heading to California in the early 1960s, they released the critically acclaimed album Back Porch Bluegrass, and the rest is history. One of the first bluegrass groups to plug in and amplify their instruments in the mid-1960s, The Dillards had a tremendous influence on the West Coast folk rock, country rock, and progressive bluegrass genres.

Tonight, Rodney and Doug are joined by George Giddens (mandolin/fiddle) and Pete Lortz (string bass), in the Dillards current lineup.

Over the past four decades, the group has released a huge number of albums, including the self-explanatory Live!!! Almost!!! and a double CD re-release of their classics, Back Porch Bluegrass and Pickin' and Fiddlin'.