CD PRESALES AVAILABLE NOW! CD orders will be fulfilled and shipped by May 1st.

Hillside Album Hour 2024 saw The Waybacks take a giant step outside the box as we presented an epic rendering of Stevie Wonder’s landmark 1973 recording “Innervisions.”

We all had a fabulous time playing Stevie's tunes and navigating the twists and turns of our own challenging arrangements, ably assisted by our musical co-conspirators Lamont Van Hook, John Cowan, Jim Lauderdale, Jens Krüger, and the mighty Red Young!

In typical Album Hour fashion we included musical tributes to Tina Turner, Gordon Lightfoot, Dickey Betts, Jimmy Buffett, Sinéad O'Connor, and more.

Digital downloads coming next. Stay tuned!

Our expansive MerleFest 2023 Hillside Album Hour interpretation of The Who's "Who's Next" features The Waybacks and Friends - Celia Woodsmith, Sam Bush, Jens Kruger, Red Young, Jim Lauderdale , and Ali McGuirk.

We had an absolute blast on that fine sunny spring day. We brought the rock and the Hillside Stage crowd most definitely brought the roll!

Here's what the fans are saying:

"Unbelievable Album Hour! Perhaps the most rocking yet. What a fine show. Only superlatives!!! And the tributes to Lindley, Crosby, Beck, and Bacharach were SO well done and are So appreciated. Thank you for hitting it out of the park (again) yet continuing to somehow reach still higher highs! In awe! Thank You all!" - Phillip Zisook

"Thank you for another great show! I love your complex arrangements and how you interweave snippets of songs as tribute to those who’ve passed. It keeps me guessing and it’s just wonderful. Thank you so much!!" - Rita Clement

"Outstanding!!! Loved it! Celia Woodsmith nailed it!" - Debra Ann White

We are excited to announce the release of our latest album: “One Way Or Another!”

This will be our Lucky 13th release in our Album Hour series, and superstition did not disappoint… this project originated as a live recording on the Hillside at Merlefest 2022, but digital gremlins left us with only a few bits of recorded material.

In response, our amazing Album Hour Family sprang into action! Everyone involved in the project wanted to see it to completion, so ALL of the original live participants headed off to recording studios around the country and played the songs a second time, and we combined original salvaged live tracks with their brand new studio creations to assemble 80 minutes of music that might just be better than the original Hillside love-fest. And we think you might like it too!

Sam Bush, Jens Kruger, Darrell Scott, Jim Lauderdale, Red Young, Noah Wall, Hubby Jenkins, Mason Via… they’re all here, playing every track from “Workingman’s Dead,” along with over two dozen additional songs we wove in to make this Americana classic something you’ve truly never heard before.

One Way Or Another… indeed!

In September, 2021, festival-goers celebrated the return of Merlefest after a pandemic hiatus, and The Waybacks celebrated the legacy of an American songwriter lost to that pandemic.

John Prine’s 1971 eponymous release combines centuries-old Appalachian roots with the psychedelic sounds and political consciousness of the 1960s, and the Waybacks explore these seminal strains of “Americana” in a roiling hour and a half set of live music that veers from the nostalgic to the unexpected, heartfelt at both extremes. Careful listeners will find tributes to band heroes Bill Withers, Kenny Rogers, Dusty Hill from ZZ Top, and even Neil Peart and Rush.

Instrumental fireworks abound, thanks to the likes of Sam Bush, Jens Kruger, and Tommy Emmanuel, and Jim Lauderdale, Red Young, Kevin Russell (Shinyribs), Noah Wall & Katie Blomarz (The Barefoot movement) and Joe Firstman deliver the vocal goods, reminding us just how much we all love those quirky and inimitable Prine moments.

“A bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down.” Enough said!

Bundle up your Album Hour memories in this mighty six pack of Saturday afternoons on the Hillside stage with The Waybacks & Friends for the dazzlingly low price of $60 for 6 CDs. Albums include:

• One Way Or Another (2022)

The Grateful Dead • Workingman's Dead

Our Lucky 13th release in our Album Hour series, and superstition did not disappoint… this project originated as a live recording on the Hillside at Merlefest 2022, but digital gremlins left us with only a few bits of recorded material.

In response, our amazing Album Hour Family sprang into action! Everyone involved in the project wanted to see it to completion, so ALL of the original live participants headed off to recording studios around the country and played the songs a second time, and we combined original salvaged live tracks with their brand new studio creations to assemble 80 minutes of music that might just be better than the original Hillside love-fest. And we think you might like it too!

Sam Bush, Jens Kruger, Darrell Scott, Jim Lauderdale, Red Young, Noah Wall, Hubby Jenkins, Mason Via… they’re all here, playing every track from “Workingman’s Dead,” along with over two dozen additional songs we wove in to make this Americana classic something you’ve truly never heard before.

One Way Or Another… indeed!

• HALFWAY TO HEAVEN (2021)

John Prine’s 1971 eponymous release combines centuries-old Appalachian roots with the psychedelic sounds and political consciousness of the 1960s, and the Waybacks explore these seminal strains of “Americana” in a roiling hour and a half set of live music that veers from the nostalgic to the unexpected, heartfelt at both extremes. Careful listeners will find tributes to band heroes Bill Withers, Kenny Rogers, Dusty Hill from ZZ Top, and even Neil Peart and Rush.

Featured guests: Sam Bush, Jens Kruger, Tommy Emmanuel, Jim Lauderdale, Red Young, Kevin Russell, Noah Wall, Katie Blomarz, and Joe Firstman.

• FULL ON THE HILL (2018)

Tom Petty • Full Moon Fever (featuring Mike Farris, Tommy Emmanuel, Sam Bush, Buddy Miller, Jerry Douglas, Jim Lauderdale, Jason Crosby, and The Barefoot Movement's Noah Wall and Katie Blomarz.)

• WITH A LOTTA HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS (2017)

The Beatles • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (featuring Della Mae's Celia Woodsmith, Sam Bush, Jason Crosby, Jens Kruger, Noah Wall, Jim Lauderdale, Tony Williamson, Christian Sedelmyer, and Rachel Baiman.)

• BIRDSONGS (2016)

The Eagles • Greatest Hits (featuring Nicki Bluhm, John Oates, Jim Lauderdale, Jason Crosby, Noah Wall, Lindsay Lou, Sam Bush, and Jens Kruger)

• BACK IN THE USA (2015)

Bruce Springsteen • Born In The USA (featuring Joan Osborne, Jim Lauderdale, Sam Bush, Jason Crosby, Jens Kruger, and Tony Williamson)

Travel back to a sunny spring afternoon on MerleFest's Hillside Stage, as The Waybacks & Friends pay homage to the rock classic, Led Zeppelin IV.

Every note of our musical adventure through that dazzling landscape, along with several captivating scenic detours along the way, has been captured in Hi-Fidelity Stereophonic Ecstasy-Inducing Sound for your listening pleasure. Add the soaring vocals of our pal Sarah Dugas and the picking prowess of friends Sam Bush, Jens Kruger, Tony Williamson, and Red Young, and it's a trip well worth taking.

Led Zeppelin with banjos, mandos, and fiddles?! What's not to like? There's even some pretty wicked guitar playing. Go figure.

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

The Waybacks & Friends pay a stirring musical tribute to the late, great Tom Petty by covering his classic album, Full Moon Fever. This double-album captures the songs and spirit of last year’s sunny afternoon on the Hillside Stage and reminds us of Petty’s great range and ongoing resonance.

Guest artists Mike Farris, Tommy Emmanuel, Sam Bush, Buddy Miller, Jerry Douglas, Jim Lauderdale, Jason Crosby, and The Barefoot Movement's Noah Wall and Katie Blomarz all lend their exceptional talents to this memorable performance.

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

On the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Waybacks & Friends take on the classic album with various side trips to the Summer of Love. Featuring Celia Woodsmith from Della Mae, Sam Bush, Jason Crosby, Jens Kruger, Noah Wall, Jim Lauderdale, Tony Williamson, Christian Sedelmyer, and Rachel Baiman, With A Lotta Help From Our Friends captures an array of both joyful and poignant performances and a spirit that persists half a century after The Beatles defined an era.

Birdsongs is a stirring and ambitious live tribute to The Eagles in the wake of Glen Frey’s passing, along with honoring a host of revered artists who left us in the year preceding – David Bowie, Prince, Allen Toussaint, B.B. King, Merle Haggard, Chris Squire, Maurice White, and George Martin, The Beatles’ esteemed producer.

Joined by friends Nicki Bluhm, John Oates, Sam Bush, Jim Lauderdale, Jens Kruger, Noah Wall, and Lindsay Lou, The Waybacks crafted a more than memorable set, filled with inventive arrangements, resonant moments, and stellar performances.

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

For their eighth Hillside Album Hour, The Waybacks, along with good friends Joan Osborne, Sam Bush, Jason Crosby, Jens Kruger, Jim Lauderdale, and Tony Williamson, take on Bruce Springsteen's landmark '80s album with stellar musicianship and a firm sense of purpose.

With imaginative rearrangements and quotes from other classic tunes threaded throughout the set to further illuminate and focus the album's complex social messages and vignettes of American life, the performance shines throughout and succeeds in revealing how resonant and relevant these iconic songs remain today.

As No Depression writes in its review of the show, "At the end of the final song, "My Hometown," the band reprised the refrain, "Born in the USA, Born in he USA." Not as a boast, or even a lament so much as it was an observation of fact, an acknowledgment that the album's songs are about America and Americans, about our times and who we are. Both then and now. The songs resonate in our daily lives, in our economic realities, in our romantic entanglements, in our hometowns and, to paraphrase James Joyce, among the living and the dead."

The Waybacks, along with special guests the T Sisters, Jim Lauderdale, Celia Woodsmith, Jens Kruger, Christian Sedelmyer, and Ben Morrison, time travel to 1970 for an inspired Hillside Album afternoon interpretation of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's classic, Deja Vu. Playing off the literal definition of "something already seen," the band weaves passages from all previous six Album Hours throughout this resonant performance. Deja View's cover reflects something else already seen, reflected though the lens of a performer's sunglasses – a hillside filled with enthusiastic fans that continues to make the experience a joyful and meaningful adventure for all. Grab a copy and experience your own deja vu!

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

Our 2013 Hillside Album Hour covering Bob Dylan and The Band's iconic live album, Before The Flood, is not to be missed. Captured live at MerleFest and presented as a 2-CD set of 21 tunes, After The Flood features The Waybacks and the astounding Nashville soul singer, Mike Farris, along with pals Della Mae, Jim Lauderdale, Eilen Jewell, John Cowan, Jens Kruger, and Kym Warner. An ambitious afternoon of music well worth hearing again or for the first time!

The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

2012's Hillside Album Hour was such an epic presentation that we needed an hour-and-a-half to fully capture the magic and fury of Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced." Hendrix On The Hillside is a 2-CD set featuring The Waybacks plus Sam Bush, John Cowan, Sarah and Christian Dugas, Jens Kruger, Jim Lauderdale, Susan Tedeschi, and Kym Warner.

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

Jamming with my friends and fabulous, eclectic musicians in The Waybacks has presented me with some unique challenges, including how to make the acoustic guitar work as a solo instrument in a loud rockin' band. I've learned a lot performing and recording with The Waybacks, and I decided to make a DVD with the kind folks at Homespun to share some things that might inspire your own playing, whether you're a dyed-in-the-wool rocker or a bluegrass/old-time picker looking for a little extra juice.

In the video, I try to cover things that could be useful to a wide range of players, starting out with easier topics like strategies for playing painful bar chords, moving to flatpick technique and speed-building with alternate picking, then on to the more creative stuff like string bending, right and left hand muting, and advanced concepts like improvising over non-diatonic chord progressions.

I've never been a big believer in trying to copy other peoples' licks, and an important part of what I do as a musician is to close my eyes, forget about things like chords and scales, and try to play freely. After all, "rocking out" isn't about thinking, it's about letting loose and feeling it!

So my goal with this video was to break down some of the more challenging things -- like soloing over chord changes and using the full range of the fingerboard -- into small, concrete exercises that encourage a musical, intuitive approach to playing the guitar. It's my hope that some of these ideas may help and inspire you in your own search for what we're all ultimately seeking: a unique musical voice.

Take a gorgeous, sun-drenched day under a perfect Carolina blue sky, add a hillside filled with about 5000 music lovers, toss in lead vocals by Joan Osborne and the incomparable keyboard work of John R. Burr, a dash of the Wailin' Jennys on backing vocals, a shot of Larry Atamanuik on drums, season liberally with The Waybacks' stellar chops and trademark energy, stir it all up with the Allman Brothers' classic recording, Eat A Peach, and you've got the makings for the tasty 2011 Hillside Album Hour. Get your full dose here!

The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

If you happened to make it to the Hillside Album Hour at Merlefest in 2010 for the band's version of Abbey Road, you know what a stellar afternoon everyone had - musicians and audience alike. Well, through the miracle of modern technology, here's your chance to hear it all again. Or for the very first time, if you didn't get down to Hillside.

Our heroic cast of characters for the occasion included (in alphabetical order): Elvis Costello, Jerry Douglas. Sarah Dugas, Byron House, Jens Kruger, Jim Lauderdale, and Shannon Whitworth. Not to be missed!

"Festival regulars know never to miss The Waybacks. An exciting newgrass band from San Francisco, they are full of surprises. Saturday on the Hillside Stage was billed as "Album Hour with The Waybacks, John Cowan and Friends." Rumors flew around the festival as to what it could be, but were quickly put to rest when Cowan sang the opening notes of "Whole Lotta Love" from Led Zeppelin II. The ensemble proceeded to play the entire album start-to-finish. Rather than a bluegrass version of the album, the group went all out. Lead guitarist James Nash rocked every solo note-for-note, switching his guitar between acoustic and electric settings. It was great to hear the familiar riffs being played on fiddle and banjo as well (by none other than "Dr. Banjo" himself, Pete Wernick). During "Thank You," the delicate keyboard part at the end sounded ethereal and transcendent on a mandolin. Cowan's high range and falsetto were a perfect fit for Robert Plant's vocals. The band was complimented by Wilders fiddle player Betse Ellis and Byron House on keys. "Heartbreaker" and "Moby Dick" were particularly fierce with twin fiddles and Nash rocking out with fully distorted guitar. It was one of the best sets of the entire festival" - JamBase

Re-experience the band's sizzling mainstage set from 2009 with an array of stalwart special guests and hot pickers sitting in for the fun – Sam Bush, John Cowan, Byron House, Phoebe Hunt, Rob Ickes, and Jens Kruger. Includes an epic medley of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" into Roy Orbison's "Crying." helmed by Cowan's soaring vocals. Not to be missed!

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

Available for digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

“The Waybacks’ genre-hopping and myriad influences make "Loaded" seem like a mixtape made just for you by your infinitely cooler friend. The sound may not be easily categorized, but it is damn good.” – POP MATTERS

For The Waybacks, musical evolution is a way of life and a spectator sport. They’re as uninhibited and unpredictable as the eclectic San Francisco Bay area that claims them, but their experiments are invariably sharp-witted and musically dazzling. They’ve been through changes for sure. Now configured as a four-piece with a full arsenal of acoustic and electric instruments, The Waybacks introduce Loaded, the boldest, rangiest and most exciting album of their career. Produced by Nashville bassist Byron House, the folky underpinnings are still there, but after years of playing a huge range of venues and festivals (including some major gigs with Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir) and reconfiguring themselves around the hot guitar of James Nash and the fiddle virtuosity of Warren Hood, The Waybacks are enjoying a refreshed repertoire – one that’s touched by Memphis soul, roadhouse boogie, Parisian swing, classical, vintage blue pop and much more besides.

By stepping forward as songwriters and assembling their first project of entirely original music, they’ve found a new collective voice before our ears. You’ll talk about it even though you may not be able to describe it. Just evolve along with them and you’ll be glad you did.

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

" … few bands have produced instrumental virtuosos who can follow the lead of newgrass icons like Sam Bush, Tony Rice and David Grisman … The Waybacks, on the other hand, feature hot pickers who are destined to become revered new-acousticians, thanks to their individual solo styles and the band's novel and irreverent tenor."
- ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAGAZINE

"This eclectic quintet ventures where few acoustic groups have gone. The music made by The Waybacks ... features some of the most exotic settings for mind-blowing picking you'll ever hear. These guys are extraordinary musicians, and their spellbinding solos will leave you slack jawed. They call their music 'acoustic mayhem.' I call it sheer genius." - BAYAREA.COM

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

"These guys can play like bandits." - BILLBOARD

"Geniuses whose playing stacks up to anything you'll find." - SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

“A near-ideal balance of irreverence, chops, discipline, and originality…”
– THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"The musical maelstrom known as The Waybacks blew in from San Francisco, sending up such a startling tornado of aggressively performed, high-spirited melodies as to remove all air from the room. Their inspirational combination of influences -- not to mention their recklessly brazen breakneck pace -- exposed the band as virtuosos sharing a singular mind-set." - THE WASHINGTON POST

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.

" … chops to spare, a sense of humor, and no respect whatsoever for standard operating procedure … very impressive … do yourself a favor …"
- BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED

"One of the most exciting, inventive and fun acoustic bands on the planet! … it's no wonder that these bay area favorites are catching fire across the country: they are stellar instrumentalists adept in multiple musical genres who have taken the acoustic string band to a whole new level." - FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE

Available either as a CD or digital download. The downloadable version includes both FLAC (lossless CD quality) and MP3 (320 kbps) files.