Music With A Side Of What?

I really hate it when people refer to a band as a "Side Project."
To me it seems like somehow it is less than a band if you call it something else.

Case in point...Black Prairie.

Chris Funk, Nate Query, and Jenny Conlee From the Decemberists, with Annalisa Tornfelt of Barefoot and Jon Neufeld of Dolorean (as well as Jackstraw).

Most often, people will refer to Black Prairie as a "Decemberists Side Project", and I can understand that maybe they're trying to just get some skin off the popularity of the Decemberists brand.

But after your first listen it becomes apparent that there's way more to this group of musicians than killing time between Decemberist gigs.

Black Prairie is, exactly as their name suggests, dark ...yet inviting and open. 

Often associated with the word bluegrass (albeit a distinctively Portland, Oregon style of bluegrass) Black Prairie gives the listener so much more than just one genre of music to enjoy within each song. 

These musicians cover so much more than what can comfortably fit into a quick and easy descriptor of music type and go well deeper into the moods and themes of what drives the a particular genre to begin with.

They've taken the blue part of bluegrass and wrung from it each and every ounce of sadness that it would release. They distilled it into its rarest form and then blended it with the purest elements of folk tradition, romantic classicism, and a dash of punk rock rebellion...and that's just the launching pad of what makes the band what they are.

These extremely talented musicians then take what they want to express from the music and serve it flawlessly with what can only be described as the joy of musicianship.

Black Prairie is so much more than just a side project, it's a glimpse of humanity encapsulated in a prism of spirit and history.