"A Little After Midnight" by Moon Mountain Ramblers (Submitted photo)

One of Bend’s longest running bands, Moon Mountain Ramblers returns after six years with “A Little After Midnight,” its fifth studio album and sixth overall.

However, it’s actually a bit disingenuous to call this a return, as the five-piece newgrass group never actually went anywhere. An ever-increasing gig schedule — weddings, private parties and plenty of street festivals — and a lack of a recording space until just a few years ago contributed to the delay between this album and 2009’s “Let It All Be Good” (though the band did release a live double CD, “Live at the Tower,” in 2010).

Nevertheless, “A Little After Midnight” was worth the wait. Across a baker’s dozen tracks, the acoustic quintet tackles country, rock, gypsy jazz, Western swing and, of course, bluegrass with all the power and nuance of a band that’s been at this for more than 15 years — and with an energy bands half its age often can’t muster.

The title track, one of three written by bassist Dan McClung, kicks things off in straight bluegrass mode, more or less, with frenetic guitar, banjo and mandolin picking, sweetened with some slide and fiddler Jenny Harada Wasson’s yearning lines. The album’s first four songs set most of the templates for the rest of the record: “Besemé,” the first of four instrumentals, brings some eastern European flair; “Old Hank’s Ghost” is a loping country dirge befitting its namesake; and “That’s Love” swings with the best of them.

Everyone gets a chance to shine on their various instruments. Matthew “Mai” Hyman’s steady guitar keeps the songs on track, but he gets a banjo showcase on instrumental “Mayhem” (another apt title), and his vocals go from yearning croon to nasal growl on a dime (check out the tear-in-your-beer country-grass ballad “Searchin’,” a definite highlight).

Wasson and mandolinist Joe Schulte provide more demonstrative flashiness on tracks such as “Roma” and especially Schulte’s composition “Hare That Bit the Dawg.” The latter song, a twisting roller coaster of an instrumental, lets McClung and percussionist Dale Largent — the band’s secret rhythmic weapon — step into the solo spotlight.

But solos take a back seat to the songs, mostly composed by Hyman, and the overall energy and excitement clearly audible in the performances. After 15-plus years, Moon Mountain Ramblers is in its prime, and “A Little After Midnight” is just more proof.

The album officially dropped late last year, but the album release party is Saturday at The Old Stone Performing Arts Center.

Moon Mountain Ramblers album release party: 8 p.m. Saturday, doors open at 7 p.m.; $8 plus fees in advance, $10 at the door; The Old Stone Performing Arts Center, 157 NW Franklin Ave., Bend; oldstonebend.com or 541-322-7273.