Photo Credit: Paul Citone

Last night, Greensky Bluegrass performed at West Des Moines, Iowa’s Val Air Ballroom. The show fell on Leap Day, so the band, appropriately enough, opened its first set with the original “Leap Year.” The tune, which the band has been playing live since 2013, served as a thread that returned throughout the show, including later in the first set before their debut take on The Wood Brothers’ thematically suited “One More Day,” and twice more during set two. The ensemble then concluded its second set with the rest of the number. As a cherry on top, the group also nodded to the bonus day with a debut cover of The Beatles’ “Eight Days a Week.” 

The High Hawks opened, and members of the country-rock sextet sat in throughout the night. Tim Carbone appeared on “Streetlight,” “Better Off” and “Train Junkie” during Greensky’s first set, then returned during the encore with his High Hawks collaborators Vince Herman and Adam Gruel for “Get No Better.”

In addition to being an original song, “Leap Year” served as the title of Greensky Bluegrass’ Leap Year Sessions, a pandemic project in which the group released four volumes of music while unable to tour in 2020 and 2021. (2020 was, of course, also a leap year.) 

Greensky will return to the stage tonight at St. Paul, Minn.’s Palace Theatre. The High Hawks will once again open.