It’s always an interesting proposition when two jamband stars from different bands get together to collaborate, and the Emmitt-Nershi Band is a collaboration that works in every way.

Drew Emmitt gained fame with Colorado’s Leftover Salmon, a band that broke all the rules of bluegrass and then rewrote them. His virtuosity on many instruments, including guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and just about anything else you can name, took the band to the heights of jamband-rock stardom.

Billy Nershi was a driving force behind String Cheese Incident, another Colorado-based band that worked its way from small local bars to stadiums and arenas worldwide. Since Leftover’s untimely demise not long after the death of banjo-monster Mark Vann, Drew has been going it solo and began collaborating with Nershi even before the demise of String Cheese Incident.

The Emmitt-Nershi Band has released a blistering album of original material titled “New Country Blues.”

Both musicians are accomplished bluegrassers with a tendency to slip into jazz, blues, or rock at any given moment, and their collaboration is nothing short of a brilliant collection of just that-bluegrass, jazz, blues and rock.

The album opens with the title cut, a great bluegrass romp, and then begins its ride through many styles of great music that includes a couple great pop songs, a cool tango, a country tune or two, a lovely ballad, and more bluegrass, all of which have elements of jazz and blues inflection that gives the music a unique and recognizable sound of its own. Definitely for fans of either band, and for anyone else that simply appreciates good music.