Great article Alan!

Spot on.

I think my first ARU show was at the old trolly station in Macon. I think it was called the Yellow Rose. (It changed names a couple of times.) I ended up catching them there several times, but the best show I caught was in Macon's Central City Park where they were joined by Chuck Level and Derek Trucks.

Those were truly special shows. I'm excited about the upcoming ARU shows in Richmond and DC. I'm hoping for transformative shows.

The Mysterious Mundy plays again! Greatest mando player ever... psst, and he's still got it.

Hopefully the ARU can coax him onto the stage in Atlanta or Athens this summer. Here's another clip from a couple months ago with Bruce and Mosier. Brato Ganibe.

Zambi - thanks for posting.

This is so wonderful. Whether he plays with ARU or not, the fact that he's up onstage anywhere is fantastic. There's someone very close to me who pulled a similar disappearing act and I have not heard from in 5+ years. This gives me some ray of hope that he'll come back to me some day, hopefully with a guitar or harp in his hand. Brilliant musician who sold or gave away all his instruments and vanished into the ether.

Totally agree, Alan. It was such a shame that he quit playing for so long. I was thrilled when I first saw those Youtube clips. Seems like it might be a monthly gig that started up last fall. If you youtube search "Matt Mundy Steve's" several of those clips come up. Steve's is a small live music venue that is relatively nearby where I live, so I need to make it over there one time and check it out in person.

First I heard Matt had started playing again was maybe a year or two ago. He works at a music store with his brother north of Atlanta in the boondocks, and the store-owner apparently has a back-porch stage and they host a monthly bluegrass jam. I had seen somewhere, or heard, that Matt was playing at those open jams, and I was hopeful it would lead to him playing out again.

Here's another:

Sorry to thread-jack. Great article. I enjoyed it when I first read it in Relix online, and enjoyed re-reading it. I had a similar experience back in 1990. ARU blew me away. Life-changing event. And has led to my hearing damage.

I think the shadow on Jimmy's face in the promo picture might be a beard, btw.