Railroad Earth

Railroad Earth play The Crocodile on Saturday, November 7, their only Seattle date that month. They're a New Jersey jam-grass quintet, and the sound they've spent two decades building first came together on their 2001 album The Black Bear Sessions. Since then, they've played venues like Red Rocks Amphitheatre and helped launch the annual Hangtown Music Festival in Placerville, California, and Hillberry: The Harvest Moon Festival in Ozark, Arkansas.

Their set usually pulls from a few different places. There are the long-standing favorites like "Hard Livin'" and "Elko," and then there's the material they've picked up along the way. In 2019, the John Denver Estate asked them to set lyrics by the late singer to music, which they released as the vinyl EP Railroad Earth: The John Denver Letters. In 2018, they said goodbye to founding member Andy Goessling, who died of cancer; afterward, the band retreated to New Orleans to record All For The Song with Anders Osborne behind the board, adding horns, blues harmonica, and New Orleans flavors to the mix.

They describe their sound as progressive bluegrass and jam-band, and that's a fair summary: it's built on intricate musicianship, soaring harmonies, and improvisational jams. The bluegrass side is the foundation, but the jam-band part is where the songs open up and stretch. The Crocodile is a historic, intimate Seattle room known for its acoustics and energetic atmosphere, and it's a good fit for a band that leans on the live experience.

The show starts at 8 PM, with doors opening at 7 PM. The Crocodile is at 2505 1st Avenue in Seattle.