Last night I saw the bluegrass group Blue Highway at Joe’s Pub in NYC. It was an awesome show. The band blends traditional and modern bluegrass influences, and features a lineup packed with really amazing musicians.

Blue Highway is touring in support of their new album, Through the Window of a Train (Rounder, 2008). Mixing material from the new CD, some older songs (the band has seven other albums), as well as a couple of traditional tunes, the set was eclectic and highly energized, and the band received three encores from a very enthusiastic audience. Blue Highway really showed their range, as they played everything from breakneck-speed instrumentals to uptempo and medium tempo vocal tunes (with excellent instrumental solos), to ballads and beautifully sung a cappella gospel tunes.

Blue Highway’s lineup includes all-world dobro player Rob Ickes, mandolinist/fiddler and superb vocalist Shawn Lane, virtuostic banjo player Jason Burleson, flashy flatpicker and vocalist Tim Stafford, and solid bassist/vocalist (and frontman) Wayne Taylor. These guys have been playing together for a long time, and you could tell. They really know how to play as an ensemble.

The band got an excellent live sound using mainly individual mics on their instruments (Stafford combined a pickup and a mic on his flattop, and Taylor had an upright with a pickup). Ickes got a great sound from his dobro through an AKG C1000 with the hypercardioid capsule in it. He says he’s been using that mic for years and has found that it works really well for him onstage.