A few years ago, the members of Blackstrap Bluegrass pulled together a detailed history of their Bend-based string band. At the beginning of the second sentence, it makes a disclaimer:

“The memories,” it says, “are fuzzy…”

That’s to be expected when you’re one of Central Oregon’s longest-running musical institutions. On Wednesday, May 1, Blackstrap will play a show at McMenamins Old St. Francis School to celebrate not only its new album, “Songs to Remember,” but also its 24th anniversary as a band.

“We’ve seen a lot of bands come and go, and we’ve just kind of been carrying the torch all these years,” said bassist and multi-instrumentalist Craig Mavis. “We’ll play a bunch of songs from the new album, and we’ll also do a few songs that are 24 years old — originals that Steve wrote way back then.”

The Steve he’s referring to is banjo player Steve Arnold, who formed Blackstrap in 2000 and is the one member who has been involved throughout the band’s existence. Rounding out the current lineup are Mavis, guitarist Jak Rands and mandolinist Derek Hofbauer. (Arnold, Mavis and Rands have been in the band since 2009; Hofbauer joined in 2018.)

Over the years, Blackstrap’s sound has shifted a bit, Mavis said, from more traditional bluegrass in the early days to its current mix of traditional bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, bluesy Americana and fast-paced country-folk. The band also plays more originals than it used to, alongside covers of acts like Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead.

“We’ve got some good pickers in the band, so we tend to get going and play real fast,” Mavis said. “We don’t do a lot of songs the exact same way each time. We’re a little more fluid because we’ve been playing long enough that we can just look at each other and call out a chorus or a lead or something. We prefer to do that on the fly. It seems to work well for us.”

The group recorded “Songs to Remember” — Blackstrap’s fourth full-length album — at The Firing Room studio in Bend, with Arnold, Hofbauer and Mavis each contributing original tunes to the mix. For a band that’s busy gigging year-round, it can be hard to find time to record, but having multiple songwriters makes it a bit easier, Mavis said.

“We played so darn much last year that we really didn’t have time (to go into the studio), but finally we booked the studio and said, ‘Everyone bring your best songs and ideas in. Let’s sit down and smooth these out.’ It was a five-month process for us.”

Having three songwriters also helps keep things fresh and interesting, not only for Blackstrap but for their fans, too.

“Steve, Derek and I all have totally different ways we write music,” Mavis said. “I grew up on old standards and toured with a rock band in the ‘70s, and these guys all grew up on bluegrass music, so we have very different backgrounds. But we just give each other space and go with the flow, and I think that’s why we’ve worked well together for so long.”