These days, there is very little that's left over with Leftover Salmon.

Just check their fridge. It's now stocked with several new members who are making their debuts on the influential jam band's latest record. There's also a new vibe, a sort of sobering maturity that's occurred since co-founder and banjoist Mark Vann died of cancer in 2003.

There's even a new producer. And that's where Leftover Salmon emphatically declares that while there indeed is change in the cool mountain air of their home base on Colorado's Front Range, they aren't about to completely forego the freewheeling jams and improvisation that's been a hallmark of the band's lengthy career.

Leftover Salmon's new producer, Bill Payne, also plays keyboards for the seminal West Coast ensemble Little Feat, one of the truly great jam bands of any era. Much like Leftover Salmon lost Vann, Little Feat lost its heart and soul in June 1979 when Lowell George died suddenly of a stroke.

Yet, Little Feat carries on today, still putting on incredible live performances and doing the jam band genre proud. It's not the sole reason Payne was chosen for Leftover Salmon's first studio project after Vann's death.

Members of both bands had become acquaintances and occasionally jammed together when schedules would permit, says Leftover Salmon's mandolinist-singer-songwriter Drew Emmitt from his home in Colorado.

"We've hooked up with Little Feat a couple times," says Emmitt while taking a break from shoveling snow after an early spring storm dumped about four feet of snow on his deck. A bit winded, Emmitt seems more than happy to chat about the band's colorful past, but was especially excited about the future.

The new, self-titled album on the Compendia label was released March 23, but had already climbed the Americana charts to the number 6 position within a few weeks. where it stayed.

"We opened for them in Fort Collins and St. Louis," Emmitt says of Little Feat. "Mark and I sat in with them too. And when we were having shows for Mark when he was sick, with people like Béla Fleck, the String Cheese Incident and Peter Rowan, Bill Payne and (Little Feat guitarist) Paul Barrere came out to the shows."Further cementing the relationship, Payne and Barrere later took time out to tour with Leftover Salmon on a run of the Northwest. Emmitt and Leftover Salmon co-founder, guitarist and singer-songwriter Vince Herman soon received an invitation to perform during Little Feat's 25th anniversary concert of the historic live double album "Waiting for Columbus.""That was a real honor," Emmitt says of the November 2002 event that featured guests ranging from Fleck to Levon Helm to Billy Bob Thornton. "You come to realize (Payne) was a driving, organizational force in that band."While the Grateful Dead may be the granddaddy of all jam bands, Little Feat certainly was a close relative. The Southern California roots rockers have been an inspiration to countless jam bands playing today, from Phish to Widespread Panic to Leftover Salmon.

"Sure, we've emulated them," Emmitt says. "During that tribute, Bill was holding us all together. We weren't all just strumming chords. Everyone was play- ' ing a part. He put a lot of effort into it."Payne brought a similar discipline to the studio for Leftover Salmon's new album - the band's eighth. As a group whose albums normally include a large number of guests who drop by to pick, Payne focused the band on being, well, a band instead of a loose-knit bunch of musicians hanging out in the living room and playing until all hours of the night.

In fact, Payne's the only non-Salmon musician contributing any licks (on both piano and keyboard), while Colorado bluegrasser K.C. Groves pitches in on harmony vocals on just one song, "Woody Guthrie." Otherwise, it's Leftover Salmon, from start to finish.

"This is an interesting point in our career," Emmitt says. "We've been touring for 15 years. We felt it was a good time to make a record that reflects the richness of being a band.

"It's more settled-down, more mature, more focused. This record is more about the tunes. I think every record is a snapshot. This one captures who we were when we made it. But I think we're playing better now than when we made the record."That's not to say this a slick, sterile record that strips away Leftover Salmon's jam band roots. Hardly. Remember, Payne was jamming long before Leftover Salmon ever picked up a mandolin or guitar.

"Oh, there was a groove," Emmitt recalls of the studio sessions. "It's much easier to play when there's a groove. And that's where we are now. We're still working on tightening things up. We've already improved so much."Payne also was careful to let the band's newcomers shine - especially banjoist Noam Pikelny, now the youngest member of the band, who contributed 1 song to the 12-set album, the instrumental cut "Lincoln at Nevada." Pikelny gets his licks in on both guitar and banjo, while fellow newcomer Bill McKay, previously in the Derek Trucks Band, adds a tasty rolling piano solo as Payne manages to keep the entire ensemble woven tightly into a 3 1Ž2-minute tune.

The band's huge turnover happened within a relatively short period of time, according to Emmitt.

Drummer Jose Martinez came to Leftover Salmon about the time their former drummer was leaving the band.

"I met Jose at the High Sierra Festival, which is close to Reno," he says. "We were doing a late-night show. He climbed in behind the drums in mid-song, and I didn't even notice. He didn't miss a beat. When I finally saw him back there, I thought, 'Wow, he sounds pretty good.' It's worked out well ever since."Bassist Greg Garrison was playing in the band the Motets in Boulder, Col., before joining Leftover Salmon. And McKay was invited to join about a year before Vann got ill, Emmitt says.

"That was the other large transition," Emmitt says of bringing in all the new members as Vann was dying. "It made for an interesting couple of years."That transition culminates with the new record.

"It's like climbing out of a huge hole," he says. "We can start feeling like a band again."Vann's loss, of course, left a huge void not only in Leftover Salmon, but also in Emmitt's soul.

"On so many levels, Mark was such a good friend," he says. "And, he was the driving force in the band. Besides being a great banjo player, he did all the books, the taxes. He thrived on that.""His playing was the same way. When he first started learning the banjo, Mark would practice for eight hours a day."Emmitt says the record is a good step in the band's evolution. It represents where Leftover Salmon is and where the band is, Emmitt says.

"This is a crucial time for us," he says. "We're trying to really get it out there. We did suffer a setback, but we're seeing new life. As far as we're concerned, the time is now."Though the freewheeling - and sometimes meandering - spirit of previous albums has been replaced by a more focused approach, the new record still covers some interesting ground.

Emmitt wrote 4 of the album's 11 cuts, including "Last Day." Though the song brims with nostalgia, it was not written in Vann's memory.

"It was before Mark got sick and the whole world got turned upside down," he says. "I wrote that after our son was born. It was fall on the Front Range. The wind was blowing through the Aspens, and I was feeling a little nostalgic. Fall's a time of change and introspection for me anyway, and that's what came out in the song."Emmitt says his smoky, Band-esque tune "Delta Queen" captures the vibe of New Orleans.

"It's a gospel-y, bluesy thing," he says. "The words and music just came together. We were doing a riverboat show during Jazzfest. As we were pulling in, we played the song. It seemed pretty poignant."Emmitt also wrote the hardcore bluegrass number "Down in the Hollow," but was especially happy to finally commit the Jim Messina song "Whispering Waters" to a studio album.

"We've been playing it live for many years," he says. "We tried recording it for the 'Euphoria' album, but it just didn't happen."When Payne dropped by for a Leftover Salmon show in San Francisco, he sat in and played a piano solo on the song, Emmitt says. The song perhaps represents Leftover Salmon at its jam band best on the new record, with Payne again displaying his chops on the eight-minute-plus number.

"It's on a Messina solo record from the '80s," Emmitt says. "I heard it KBCO in Boulder back when they used to play a lot of different stuff. It's a pretty weird world out there, radio-wise. The bigger triple-A stations are playing us, but it's pretty tight. You'll hear us on public radio and the non-commercial stations that play whatever they want. If I were to pick two songs that might appeal to commercial radio, I'd probably have to say 'Delta Queen' and 'Just Keep Walking,' since they're a little less bluegrassy."It's unlikely that radio will devise a jam band format in the near future, Emmitt says.

"It's basically the category we fall in," he says. "It's defined by the audience more than anything. It's mostly young people who go to the shows. You play very long songs and not a lot of lyrics. It can be bluegrass, jazz, funk."String Cheese Incident provided a lot of inspiration when the band was first figuring out its style, he says.

"When we first started touring 15 years ago, a lot of others started," he says. "There were not a lot of places for us to play. There wasn't a big touring circuit for a bluegrass band with rock 'n' roll instruments. We pounded it out until we saw results."In the early years Leftover Salmon, toured endlessly, Emmitt says.

"We used to do 250 shows a year, and we rode in an old school bus," he says. "That was intense. Now we're down to a manageable level at about 130 shows a year."After hitting the road all February, the band hit the southeast and is readying for the festival season.

"We'll do the same thing as last summer," Emmitt says. "We did mostly weekend festivals. This year we'll be going to Manchester, Tenn. (for Bonaroo in June). Right now, it's the biggest festival in the country. It draws people like Bob Dylan, Dave Mathews and Del McCoury. This is the first year we've done it. Most of the bands in our genre are there."But something of a tradition for Leftover Salmon will be broken. The band won't be playing the Telluride bluegrass festival this year.

"It's the first time in 13 years we won't be there," he says. "It's part of taking a new direction."