The Greencards - Bluegrass. 7 p.m. tonight. Turley Park, Carbondale. Free. No glass bottles, kegs, pets or solicitation. Authorities will strictly enforce underage drinking laws. For more information, call the Student Programming Council at 536-3393 or visit its Web site at www.spc4fun.com.

In California for a couple of festival performances before heading back to the middle of the country, the Greencards' Kym Warner had just gotten out of the pool.

"I'll take the summer any day," he said.

It's the favorite time of year for Warner and his bandmates, not just because of the weather, but because it's the time for large-scale outdoor festivals all across the country.

"There are so many great places to play, listening rooms and whatever else, but I think festival season is pretty amazing," Warner said. "We just played Bonnaroo, which is an incredible thing. We played at the same festival as Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and Metallica."

Mandolinist Warner, along with Carol Young on bass and Eamon McLoughlin on fiddle, will have another opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and the sunshine tonight when they bring their take on traditional bluegrass to this week's Sunset Concert in Carbondale's Turley Park.

The Greencards might be one of the biggest coups in the concert series' 30 years. Mentioned in the same breath as other "newgrass" bands such as Old Crow Medicine Show and Nickel Creek, in the five years of its existence, the band's career has skyrocketed. At this point, the Greencards have three albums, a supporting slot on tour with music legends Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan in 2005, a No. 1 song on the Billboard bluegrass chart and heavy video airplay on Country Music Television.

The tour with Dylan and Nelson was particularly satisfying at such an early point in the band's existence.

"We were just hoping to get to catch one of those shows that summer," Warner said, "and we ended up doing the whole run of shows, playing every night."

The momentum continued this winter, when the band attended the 2008 Grammy Awards ceremony. The song "Mucky the Duck," from the group's most recent album, "Viridian," was nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance.

Though they lost out to Brad Paisley, it really was meaningful to just be nominated.

"It is a pretty big thing," Warner said. "It's hard to downplay that. It's the biggest music awards in the world, and to be recognized by the academy is a dream come true, really."

The band's name is a reference to the members' immigration from their respective countries (Warner and Young are Australian and McLoughlin is English). That the three met at a recording session in Austin, Texas, is somewhat ironic. Especially since the tie binding them together is American roots music.

"We all grew up with it, whether it be rock 'n' roll or bluegrass or whatever else," Warner said. "Something just pulled on the heartstrings there, particularly the acoustic form of the music."

Their respect for tradition, along with a willingness to experiment and bring in other influences, has landed the Greencards smack in the middle of the Americana music scene with other artists such as Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller and Hot Rize. It's a movement that has continued to grow in the last several years in the wake of the "O Brother where Art Thou" phenomenon.

"I've always found it a really exciting form of music," Warner said. "My theory on it is if people had the opportunity to hear it and see it live, it would stick."

In addition to the appearance at Bonnaroo this spring, the group also appeared at the Stagecoach Festival with Dwight Yoakam and the Eagles, and will continue to make a number of festival appearances throughout the rest of the summer after a stop in Carbondale.

And despite the upward trajectory the band's career path has taken, seeing Robert Plant or Tom Petty walk onstage at these festivals never ceases to impress them.

"We're still music fans," Warner said. "That's never going to go away."

brent.stewart@thesouthern.com

351-5074