The first time I saw Bend-based band Truck Stop Gravy perform, they were standing just outside the Back Porch Coffee in the Century Center, facing into the shop and playing through a wide-open bay door. It was Bend Roots Revival 2011, and the crowd inside the coffee house — which certainly had other options at other stages — seemed to be not only enjoying the band’s mellow groove, but growing, too.

I captured video of the band covering the Grateful Dead’s “Althea” and lauded their “low-key, amiable acousticizing” on my music blog, Frequency.

That was more than three years ago, and not much has changed in Truck Stop Gravy’s world. They’re older as a band, certainly, and have no doubt tightened up their sound. They play pretty regularly around town. And on Saturday night, they’ll celebrate the release of their first album with a show at Silver Moon Brewing.

At 16 tracks long, the self-titled effort is nothing if not ambitious. And it’s packed end-to-end with the kind of rollicking acoustic funk-folk jams that Truck Stop Gravy is known for. It’s a mix of originals written by the band’s members — guitarists John Nangle and Burke Selbst, bassist Kyle Swantek and mandolinist John Sterling — as well as covers of the Dead, The Beatles, The Band, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Cliff, Talking Heads and J.J. Cale.

Among the originals, Swantek’s “Habituation” inhabits a slinky groove and runs on a reggae rhythm and Selbt’s “Never Comes Back” has a sort of sinister bluesy feel. Nangle’s “Old Man Jack” and Sterling’s pair of tunes possess the gentle, wandering jangle of classic Dead. Altogether, “Truck Stop Gravy” sounds like the kind of band that will provide fine dance-floor fuel at the ol’ Silver Moon.

For more on the band, check out www.facebook.com/truckstopgravy.

— Reporter: 541-383-0377, bsalmon@bendbulletin.com