Mountain Grass Unit

bluegrass · newgrass · jam band

Mountain Grass Unit is a bluegrass band from Birmingham, Alabama, made up of Drury Anderson on mandolin, Luke Black on guitar, Sam Wilson on bass and Josiah Nelson on fiddle. Anderson, Black and Wilson grew up in Mountain Brook, took lessons at a local instrument shop and sat in at Birmingham jam sessions, and had been playing together since junior high when they formed the group under an earlier name in 2018; Nelson, from Colorado, joined later. The band combines stacked harmonies and jam-band looseness with melody-driven songwriting, and cites the Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead alongside traditional bluegrass, with country, jazz, funk and rock surfacing in its improvising. It released the EP Runnin' From Trouble in 2024, won the International Bluegrass Music Association's Momentum Band of the Year award in 2025, and moved from balancing college with touring to working full time, selling out dozens of headline dates and playing internationally, including Australia. Its debut studio album, Appalachian Smoke, is set for release on August 28, 2026 through Dualtone Records: thirteen tracks produced by six-time Grammy winner Vance Powell, recorded almost entirely live and without a click track to preserve the interplay of the live show, with guests including Greensky Bluegrass dobro player Anders Beck, fiddler Michael Cleveland and pedal steel player Karl Smakula. The band is scheduled to make its Grand Ole Opry debut two days before the album arrives. Its festival schedule has included Railbird, Bonnaroo, High Sierra, Under the Big Sky, Grand Targhee, the Earl Scruggs Music Festival and Hulaween, and it has shared stages with Greensky Bluegrass and Billy Strings. In clubs it plays rooms such as Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver and The Burl in Lexington.

Official site

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Upcoming shows in Tennessee

Grand Ole Opry: OPRY 100 — Wednesday, August 26, 2026 · 7:00 PM at Grand Ole Opry
Mountain Grass Unit — Thursday, August 27, 2026 · 7:00 PM at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville

Where they play in Tennessee

Shared bills in Tennessee

Upcoming shows in North Carolina

Mountain Grass Unit — Sunday, September 6, 2026 · 7:00 PM at Earl Scruggs Center

Where they play in North Carolina

Earl Scruggs Center

Upcoming shows in Louisiana

Mountain Grass Unit — Thursday, September 10, 2026 · 7:00 PM at Tipitina's

Where they play in Louisiana

Tipitina's

Upcoming shows in Texas

Mountain Grass Unit — Friday, September 11, 2026 · 7:00 PM at The Heights Theater
Mountain Grass Unit — Saturday, September 12, 2026 · 7:00 PM at Antone's Nightclub
Mountain Grass Unit — Sunday, September 13, 2026 · 7:00 PM at The Kessler Theater

Where they play in Texas

Upcoming shows

Mountain Grass Unit **TUESDAY 9/15** — Tuesday, September 15, 2026 · 8:00 PM at Cervantes Other Side
Mountain Grass Unit — Tuesday, September 15, 2026 · 8:00 PM at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
Mountain Grass Unit — Wednesday, September 16, 2026 · 7:00 PM at Cervantes Other Side
Mountain Grass Unit **WEDNESDAY 9/16** — Wednesday, September 16, 2026 · 8:00 PM at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom