As a young chap – in my ear-drenched heavy metal days when heavy guitars were stars – I always thought of bluegrass music as porch-sittin,’ jug-blowin,’ banjo-twangin’ music. And, for the most part, I was right. These are the fundamental ingredients for a bluegrass, jugband, or ragtime shindig. And although bluegrass was formulated on porches and in backyards of days gone by, today’s variety isn’t delegated to such places. As Twin Cities string-banders Pert Near Sandstone will show you, their music is a derivative of the original bluegrass, but whittled into a crafty, high-energy, and gritty musical assembly. Touring behind their latest release, Needle and Thread, the Pert gents revert one’s psyche to back country waterside jams and dance hall swinging. But their contemporary combination of melody, rhythm, and lyrics assist in the marriage of the traditional to the modern, making for an old-timey dance party impossible to resist. If you’ve never seen a mandolin, banjo, and a whistler blow the doors off of a building, than get your bluegrASS to the intimate, grainy Mousetrap show for a taste. If you can’t make it, the Pert sirs will be in Menomonie for a spell to inflict more hatchway havoc for a WHYS Radio benefit. Uphold the traditional, embrace the contemporary, and gaze into the future of bluegrass with Pert Near Sandstone.

    Pert Near Sandstone • Dec. 4 and Dec. 9 • The Mousetrap, 311 S. Barstow St., Eau Claire and Waterfront Bar & Grill, 512 Crescent St., Menomonie • 10pm • FREE