“Sometimes you win/Most times you lose/That’s the cold hard truth” “Cold Hard Truth”


Jeremy Garrett has been playing music since he first picked up the fiddle at the age of three,
encouraged by his father, a guitarist steeped in Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys and its guitar/banjo
duo of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs. The two formed a band together, the Grasshoppers, and that
helped launch Jeremy’s 45-year – and counting — career as a musician.


Born in California, Garrett grew up in Idaho, before moving to Nashville in 1998, co-founding
the Infamous Stringdusters when a musician friend, dobro player Andy Hall, approached his
bandmate in a group named the Ronnie Bowman Committee (along with ex-mandolin player
Jesse Cobb) to join forces with his Berklee College of Music classmates, banjo player Chris
Pandolfi and former guitarist Chris Eldridge, in the group’s first iteration in 2005. The band’s
current lineup includes double-bassist Travis Book, who came aboard in 2005, and guitarist
Andy Falco, who replaced Eldridge in 2007. Since that time, the Stringdusters have garnered a
Grammy Award in 2018 for Best Bluegrass Album (Laws of Gravity) and two nominations, the
most recent in 2022 in the same category (A Tribute to Bill Monroe).


Since that time, Garrett has released seven solo albums, with his latest, Storm Mountain, his first
since 2022’s well-received River Wild. Now living “off the grid” in a cabin on 12 acres with his
wife and eight-year-old daughter in a remote section of Theodore Roosevelt National Forest
outside of Drake, Colorado, Garrett recorded the album in a one-room studio outside of Fort
Collins, CO, at the foothills of the mountains, before he added his parts at his own Storm
Mountain home studio.


“This is not a light-hearted record,” he explained. “Bluegrass is a lonesome music. I wanted this
album to be more sophisticated than songs about trains and biscuits, to bring out the deeper
content.”


With groups like Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident and
current phenom Billy Strings updating bluegrass for a new generation of listeners as “jamgrass,”
the genre has exploded. Jeremy Garrett, known to the Infamous Stringdusters’ loyal fan base as
either G-Grass or Freedom Cobra for his dynamic stage presence, has been at the forefront of the
revival.


“Bluegrass is a durable music,” he said.” It’s been around for a long time. It’s down home and
hardy and you can play it anywhere. You don’t even need electricity. The Dusters are a
traditional bluegrass band that brought in the elements of extended soloing into the mix.”
Storm Mountain deals with such serious topics as a fall from grace (“Son of Perdition”), the
bitterness of fate (“The Cold Hard Truth”), lost love (“Fly Away”), the meaning of life (“Anchor
in the Deep”) and hopes for his daughter (“You’re Gonna Fly”). In addition, there are playful
stabs at modern phenomena from social conventions (“Don’t Ask’) to UFOs (“Rosewell”).


“I love weird stuff like that,” he laughed. “I study quantum physics, too.”


Other highlights include surprising, idiosyncratic covers of songs by Mr. Mister’s Richard Page
(“The Border”) and U.K. classic rock band Free (“Fire and Water”).


“I’m interested in World Music and how the fiddle has been played around the globe,” said
Garrett, whose previous albums have explored a wide range of fiddle effects, including loops and
pedals, showing the instrument can be as eclectic as the guitar. “It’s been integrated in all forms
of music as one of the most versatile instruments on the planet. There’s something about fiddle
players that’s unique.”


Garrettt’s collaborators on the record included banjo player Ryan Cavanagh (“a picker’s picker”),
guitarist Chris Luquette, singer Lindsay Lou (“The Border,” “You’re Gonna Fly,” “Son of
Perdition”), songwriting partner Josh Shilling, fiddle players Luke Bulla and Casey Driessen
(“Rosewell”), bassist Travis Anderson, tenor vocalist Ray Cardwell (“Slow Train”) and
Stringdusters colleague Andy Hall on Resophonic guitar/dobro (“You’re Gonna Fly”).
“I wanted to draw on something a little different than what I do with the ‘Dusters, by touching on
my more traditional lineage in gospel, country and blues. These are songs that don’t quite fit in
with the crowds we usually play for. When I go back to the band, I’m way better and more
fulfilled for having done these solo records.”


At 48 years old, Garrett is relatively young for a bluegrass veteran and looks forward to
performing his music live for audiences. “When I write songs now, it’s from the standpoint of
someone who’s been through some life experiences over the past 20 years. My goal is for this
record to be uplifting at the same time as it’s more reflective in terms of healing.
“You need to have the music serve the song first and foremost, but I still throw down the fiddle
because that’s what people expect.”


With the Dusters about to celebrate their 20th anniversary next year with a new album, Garrett
looks forward to finding time for the occasional solo performance along with his “day job.”
His ultimate inspiration are guys like Larry Sparks (“Slow Train” on the new album is a tribute
to him), Del McCoury and the late Ralph Stanley, who have performed into their 70s, 80s and
90s.


“I want to play this music forever,” said Jeremy. With Storm Mountain, he continues on that
path.

Jeremy Garrett Albums

The Infamous Stringdusters Albums