What more is there to say about Jerks of Grass? Winners of our Roots Act Award six years running, they aren’t exactly a band heavy on the new developments. New album? Heck, they’re still working on their first, never quite satisfied with a number of different attempts to record them and put some product in front of their fans. New tunes? Well, they have worked up a bunch of new Fleck songs recently, but the casual fan is going to wind up staring at them slack-jawed no matter what they’re playing. And that lineup has been rock solid for the past four years or so: Carter Logan on the five-speed banjo (though lately he’s been showing off skills on fiddle and dobro), Jason Phelps destroying his guitar and making every other flatpicker in town go home and practice for hours in shame, Ronnie Gallant flashing his blur of a right hand on mandolin, and Tom Jacques holding down the fort on the stand-up bass, making sure things to get too crazy up there with all the lightning-fast pickers.

This is the first year you could get some recorded Jerks for your fix, though. WMPG released a recording of their 2nd Annual Bluegrass Extravaganza that contains six Jerks tracks (and you can still grab them at Bull Moose, so you might as well). Take a listen to the syncopation on "Metric Lips" — WMPG called up Bela Fleck to ask if it was okay for them to release a version of it; Bela said sure, no one’s ever asked him that before. There aren’t many bands who’d even attempt it.

If you’re looking for a good venue to watch it happen again, check out WMPG’s Bluegrass Extravaganza 3, May 23 at the St. Lawrence. My band the Grassholes will open (feel free to heckle), and the Muddy Marsh Ramblers, second place in this category, will play second before the Jerks take it all home.

After opening last year’s Awards Show with a three-song medley that had every musician in the place asking when the Jerks played next, this year only Gallant could make it up on stage to receive their Bimpy. But, he assured us, "This never gets old."

Runners up: Muddy Marsh Ramblers, Harpswell Sound