Adam Aijala’s New Fairway Boogie

Yonder Mountain String Band’s Adam Aijala prefers the flatpick to the flatstick. Either way, the guy can flat-out play.

Asia-la—that’s how you pronounce the surname of Yonder Mountain String Band guitarist Adam Aijala. “I get Ayhala, Ay-Jala, Ay-ala,” he says. “People think it’s Spanish or Middle Eastern. It’s Finnish, and all three of the as are actually the 27th letter in the Finnish alphabet, which looks like an a with two dots—an umlaut—over it.”

So, if we were in Helsinki, he’d be Adam Äijälä, and people might think he’s related to hardcore punker Läjä Äijälä. But we’re in America—where umlauts adorn the names of metal bands like Mötley Crüe and Spin̈al Tap, not those of bluegrass flatpickers.

And since we’re north of Boulder, ready to tee off at Lake Valley Golf Club, all those tittles in Äijälä would suggest the self-proclaimed “bogey golfer” should receive eight strokes a side. But the 40-year-old musician doesn’t need the pops because we’re not having a match. It’s too chilly, windy—too April—for that.

Growing up near Worcester, Mass., Aijala didn’t play golf—or bluegrass music, for that matter. He favored skateboarding and, after picking up guitar at age 13, the songs of hardcore bands like Black Flag. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he eventually gravitated to the Grateful Dead and Old & in the Way. By 1995, his senior year, he’d bought a pawnshop banjo and his playlist included bluegrass legends such as Norman Blake and Doc Watson.

Following his muse to Boulder and Nederland, he and fellow bluegrass musicians Jeff Austin, Ben Kaufmann and Dave Johnston eventually formed Yonder Mountain String Band in 1998. The subsequent June they headed to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival “just for fun; we didn’t have a gig booked.” Playing on a friend’s porch, they drew such a large crowd that the festival invited them to the Elks Park stage. This month, the band, now with 10 albums to its credit, will play the main stage for the 15th consecutive year.

During most of them, Aijala has also played the par-70 Telluride Golf Club, usually with bandmate Johnston and some friends. “A number of the musicians— Jason Carter, the Greensky Bluegrass guys— also play golf,” he says. “One year Michael Kang of String Cheese Incident played through our group. We saw him in the clubhouse later; he shot a 68.”

That number won’t appear on Aijala’s scorecard at Lake Valley. “I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m as good as I’ll ever be,” he says. “It’s nice not to get upset about not playing as well as you think you should.”

This acceptance represents a change from 2010, when he got out 75 times, teeing it up wherever the tour schedule took him. “I started applying the slim margin for error I accept with my music to my golf and realized I was paying to get upset, which makes absolutely no sense.”

Our round marks only his fourth of the year. After losing his opening tee shot in the marsh right of the fairway—and taking a penalty stroke instead of a proffered mulligan—Aijala stays true to his self-description and bogeys the first five holes, including the number-one-handicap third.

On the long par-five ninth the guitarist picks it clean with crisp 5-iron from the fairway bunker en route to a well-earned par. His swing is fluid, and once he figures that yes, the putts do break away from the yonder mountains, he strings together a few beauties—which save him because he hits only one green in regulation.

Although Aijala understands how rhythm and tempo translate to the golf swing, he doesn’t consider himself “mathematical about golf or music. I’m all about feel with both, not having to think, just doing it.”

Given the cold and wind, his final score of 91 stands as impressive. Before heading back to the Boulder home he shares with his wife Julie, Aijala says he’s looking forward to this year’s Telluride festival, Yonder’s first since mandolinist Jeff Austin left the band. A guest musician will take his place. Telluride is famous for “sit in” sets, and Aijala could find himself trading licks with a Sam Bush, Chris Thile or Béla Fleck. “I get more nervous playing golf with different people than I get playing music,” he says, “but I love that both bring people together.”

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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