“Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass” is how Leftover Salmon typically describes their unique brand of bluegrass music.

“On kind of a whim, we decided to all play together. We played the tunes in our common repertoires, which were bluegrass songs, but we were setup as a rock band and we just pulled off what we could without rehearsing,” explained Vince Herman, vocalist and guitarist for Leftover Salmon.

The day the group decided to play together may have been the beginning of Leftover Salmon and their style of bluegrass, however, the band’s roots go back much farther.

“I grew up in Pittsburgh, and there was a lot of stuff going on there besides bluegrass, like polka. There were just so many different kinds of music scenes,” Herman said. “We all grew up in different musical environments.”

The band’s beginnings can be traced back to some of the members’ past groups such as the Salmon Heads, which was Herman’s band and the Left-Hand String Band, which included Drew Emmitt and Mark Vann.

The two bands met through the local Boulder, Colo. scene, merged and were joined by bassist Tye North and drummer Jeff Sipe.

After two indie releases and extensive touring throughout the States, Leftover Salmon started attracting major label attention and ended up signing with Hollywood Records.

“Hollywood came through with the best kind of sense of what we were doing,” Herman said. “The president at the time was a bluegrass fan, and we were surprised with how much he knew about bluegrass.”

The major label release sold surprisingly well compared to the band’s indie releases, largely due to the fact that they had the distribution necessary to get the album in all the stores.

“At sound checks I used to take the CD’s to the local record stores to sell,” Herman explained. “It helps a lot to have them in the stores already.”

Despite the band’s many successes, Herman claims that the group’s most prized possession and greatest accomplishment is a plastic cheeseburger.

“I don’t know — it means everything and nothing, you know?” Herman laughed.

Given to them at their first show by a friend who was going to toss it, they have brought the cheeseburger along with them to every show, unless it was missing, which happens frequently.

“It was last seen at the High Sierra Festival and we usually get it back at the next festival, but it’s still missing,” Herman said. “I’m more worried about it than ever this time. We don’t have any clues. It’ll probably show up in photographs in Mexico, but he doesn’t drink so he should be OK.”

Jokes aside, Herman and the rest of the band are all business on their upcoming release, “The Nashville Sessions.”

Recorded in three short weeks, the album brings in over 20 guest musicians, including talents like John Popper (Blues Traveler) and Bela Fleck (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones).

“We come from a bluegrass background where everybody picks and gets to play with each other, and we wanted to reflect that on an album,” Herman said.

Herman said he was most surprised by Country legend Earl Scruggs’ appearance on the album but was starstruck by many of the guest appearances.

“It was weird,” he said. “We got to play with all these great people instead of just being in shock that they were there.”

This weekend the band will venture to Minnesota’s annual Harvest Festival.

“Harvest Festival is going to be great. Freak of the Week is going to be great, if he’s up there, you know it’s gonna be good,” Herman said.