Mile High Stash with Leftover Salmon’s Andy Thorn

Colorado writer and musician Adam Perry hosts a weekly podcast called Mile High Stash. Each Monday he drops a new episode featuring an interview with a Colorado musician or artist.

This week, Mile High Stash interviewed banjoist Andy Thorn of Leftover Salmon.

A native of North Carolina, Thorn has been a member of Leftover Salmon for over 10 years. He’s also a solo recording artist and, recently, became internet famous for a viral video when he played banjo for a fox.

Mile High Stash sat down with Andy recently to talk about his experiences growing up in North Carolina, moving to Colorado, and being inspired by that fox in his Boulder backyard, and geeking out on banjo. He also notes that he’s playing a benefit April 27 for the Future Arts Foundation at Rayback in Boulder, Colo.

A few highlights from the interview:

On Colorado:

“I’ve always loved Colorado. I used to come out here with Scouts when I was in high school, so I’d hiked 14ers and been camping out here. I’ve always been an outdoorsy guy. Colorado always had this thing. I wanted to go out and ski and see the mountains.”

On the joys of Leftover Salmon:

“Growing up in North Carolina, as a fan of bluegrass bands I started to become more of a hippie kid. I became a fan of jam bands, and I actually saw Leftover Salmon and String Cheese at Merle Fest. I was like, wow, this is what I love to do, like bluegrass, but mixed with some improv and some jamming, and they’re having a lot of fun on stage. They’re not wearing suits. They’re smiling their asses off.”

On the fox and the banjo:

“During the pandemic, this fox would come over that lived in the neighborhood, and he did not like it when I was playing the louder, faster three-finger style, but we noticed he liked the Clawhammer. I also noticed, as I started to make videos and put them online, that the fans out there really liked the Clawhammer stuff, too. I would spend all this time like practicing a very fancy piece or something with the three-finger banjo, but then some little thing I would make up that was Clawhammer would get more reaction.”

Listen to the full Mile High Stash interview with Andy Thorn on your favorite streaming service. Or visit the Mile High Stash website for past episodes and more information on the show and host Adam Perry.