On one of those musical family trees showing how bands often beget other bands, you could make a case that The Coal Porters are descendents of alt-country/Paisley Underground act the Long Ryders. The musical DNA connecting the two bands hails from musician/author/broadcaster Sid Griffin who served as leader of the Long Ryders and now heads up The Coal Porters.

Kentucky native Griffin formed The Coal Porters as an electric band with Scottish stand-up comedian Neil Robert Herd, but the duo quickly tired of lugging around all the gear needed to properly present music in a highly amplified environment and on a dare switched to acoustic instruments. Receiving positive feedback for going the wooden route, The Coal Porters grew in size, eventually adding Canadian fiddler Carly Frey, lawyer/bassist Andrew Stafford and more recently banjo-man John Breese.

The brief tour of the West Coast California towns begins in San Francisco at the Burrit Room Lounge at the Hotel Crescent April 29. Other dates include a stop in Indio at the “Stagecoach: California’s Country Music Festival” May 1; and three shows in Los Angeles; Culver City’s Cinema Bar May 2; Altadena’s Coffee Gallery May 3 and Echo Park’s 321 Lounge May 4.

“For all the satisfaction of success in Europe and becoming the U.K.’s leading ‘alt-bluegrass’ ensemble,’ there is nothing to compare to The Coal Porters heading for my musical home in California,” Griffin said. “My days in Los Angeles with the Long Ryders were so wonderful and I was so blessed with so many friends that it is high time I took the band to the left coast to show ‘em all what we can do.”

For more information about The Coal Porters, visit the band’s website.