Jeff Austin (April 25, 1974 – June 24, 2019) was a mandolinist and singer best known for being a part of the Yonder Mountain String Band.

Although Austin was born in Arlington Heights, he grew up in Elk Grove, Illinois and attended Rolling Meadows High School. Austin attended the University of Cincinnati, but soon made his way to Urbana, Illinois, where he met future banjoist Dave Johnston. Receiving a request from Johnston to perform in his band The Bluegrassholes, Austin picked up the mandolin for the first time. After some time, Austin moved to Nederland, Colorado. Johnston, after seeking improvement in his playing ability, also moved to Nederland. While attending a club called the Verve, Austin met Adam Aijala and Ben Kaufmann, with whom he and Johnston would form the Yonder Mountain String Band.

In March 2004, Austin released a full-length studio album with Chris Castino (The Big Wu) called Songs from the Tin Shed. This album features Nick Forster and included guest appearances by Darol Anger, Sally Van Meter and Noam Pikelny.

In February 2006, Austin recorded Rex (Live at the Fillmore), a live album under the band name Grateful Grass featuring fellow musicians Keller Williams and Keith Moseley (The String Cheese Incident). Available only for digital download, the album features non-traditional bluegrass versions of songs by the Grateful Dead with 100% of the proceeds going to the Rex Foundation.

Austin joined forces with Brendan Bayliss of Umphrey's Mcgee to form a group called 30db. They put out an album called "One Man Show" in 2010 as well as having a small seven show tour in May 2010 to promote the album. Cody Dickinson from the North Mississippi Allstars, Nick Forster from the bluegrass band Hot Rize, and Boulder based Eric Thorin joined them on tour. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.