For Truth & Salvage Co. – playing Fernwood on Saturday – 2010 was one hell of a year.


They played the renowned Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, toured with the Avett Brothers and opened shows for the Black Crowes.


By now, the six-piece roots outfit is pretty tight with Crowes frontman Chris Robinson, who produced their self-titled debut album released last May to rave reviews from USA Today and Rolling Stone.


“[Robinson] was inspiring and very hands-on with the record and with our songs,” says singer/drummer Bill “Smitty” Smith. “He would put the final touches on everything and give us some great ideas. He was a great vocal coach to the band and a ray of sunshine to work with.”


It helps to have someone like Robinson as a backer, but Truth & Salvage wouldn’t have been noticed in the first place without its tasty jams that seem to summon The Band, The Allman Brothers, The Byrds, Creedence and other like-minded musical forces from around the same era.


The vintage sound of the dusty piano and simple guitar plucks that kick off “Jump the Ship” are reminiscent of a patchouli-scented longhair thumbing his way out West – before a build-up of guitar and Scott Kinnebrew-led harmony uncover the realization that home is rarely found on the road.


“The song was written by Scott about missing a loved one or a partner,” Smitty says. “It was probably inspired by the time he spent on a ship 10 years ago as a merchant marine.”


Kinnebrew found himself back on the open sea once again when Truth & Salvage was invited to play on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man Cruise last January. 


That’s pretty much how the band will spend the rest of 2011: on tour. This summer, the sextet will dive head first into the festival circuit with the likes of Paul Simon, the Flaming Lips and the Black Keys. But these ramblers are all about life on the road.


“We left our homes and haven’t returned,” Smitty says.


Local female supergroup honeymoon will provide an appropriately energizing opening act. 


TRUTH & SALVAGE CO. and HONEYMOON play 9pm, Saturday, March 12, at Fernwood, 47200 Highway 1, Big Sur. $10. 667-2422.