The String Cheese Incident have shared “County Road Blues,” a second bonus track from its acclaimed 2023 album Lend Me A Hand. This latest cut is a wide-open, rousing instrumental jam that strides steadily along, emanating knowing warmth with just a tinge of bittersweetness. This dispatch follows the group’s release of “Windy Mountain,” which the group released in late February.

Like “Windy Mountain,” “County Road Blues” was derived from the same studio sessions that gave rise to Lend Me A Hand, featuring production from Brad Cook, the renowned country and alternative creative consultant who most recently produced Waxahatchee’s newly-released Tigers Blood. On Lend Me A Hand and the selections that have followed it, Cook’s guidance coaxes a newfound intimacy and forthright simplicity from The String Cheese Incident’s sound; this approach thrives in the wide-open bluegrass arrangement of “County Road Blues,” bringing a resonant emotional potency to every passing note in its weighty, ambling trek.

“I wrote this when I was actually living up County Road 99 near Nederland, Colorado,” Bill Nershi shares via Facebook, “just hanging out on the porch just picking tunes, and this one came out.” In a release, the songwriter elaborates on the form of his latest offering, writing, “In Bluegrass, the guitar players call these ‘floaties.’ You pick the notes and let the open strings ring out. When I bring bluegrass to the band it usually morphs into other styles and takes on a character all its own.”

After four months away, The String Cheese Incident will return to the road on April 8 with a performance at Burnet, Texas’ Texas Eclipse, followed by the outset of the band’s spring East Coast tour on May 16, which features headline performances at Solshine Reverie and CaveJam at The Caverns. Fans unable to make any of the band’s upcoming engagements can tune to its ongoing Friday Night Cheese series for iconic concerts from the band’s vault.

Listen to The String Cheese Incident’s “County Road Blues” now. Read on for the complete list of the band’s 2024 tour dates.

The String Cheese Incident 2024 Tour Dates:

April 6 – Texas Eclipse – Burnet, Texas 
May 16 – Ting Pavilion – Charlottesville, Va.
May 17 – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena – Atlantic City, N.J.
May 18 – MGM Music Hall at Fenway – Boston
May 19 – State Theatre – Portland, Maine
May 21 – Stage AE – Pittsburgh
May 23-24 – Solshine Reverie – Chillicothe, Ill.
May 25-26 – CaveJam at The Caverns – Pelham, Tenn.
June 8 – Beech Mountain Summer Concert Series – Beech Mountain, N.C.
June 21-22 – Electric Forest – Rothbury, Mich.
June 26 – TBD – Salt Lake City
June 27 – 28 – Snow King Mountain – Jackson, Wyo.
June 29-30 – KettleHouse Amphitheater – Bonner, Mont.
July 12-14 – Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, Colo.
July 25-27 – McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheatre – Troutdale, Ore.
July 28 – Remlinger Farms – Carnation, Wash.
Aug 2-4 – Locomotion Festival – Felton, Calif.
Sept 12-15 – Bender Jamboree – Las Vegas