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By Marc Tracy
Dear listeners,
It has become a joke among a few friends and colleagues that I am the newspaper’s jam band correspondent. I have written (and Popcasted!) about the Grateful Dead, Phish’s wizard-like lighting director and, last month, Goose. I do these stories because I like this music, and in some cases love it. Now, it is time for me to make my case. If you’ve ever found yourself even a little jam-band curious, then this one is for you.
A jam band borrows the grammar the Grateful Dead set more than a half-century ago: concerts with ever-shifting set lists; songs with ample room for extensive improvisation; eclectic musical roots encompassing bluegrass, gospel, jazz and rock (Southern, prog, classic, indie); fans who treasure live recordings over studio albums; and an ethos that is laid-back and, though sometimes serious, rarely self-serious.
Roll your eyes if you must. But jam bands aren’t going anywhere. Goose and the virtuosic guitarist Billy Strings are on the cusp of mainstream moments. Suddenly, somehow, the Dead became a little bit cool. Jam bands might be perfectly suited to our era, in which an artist’s best bet is developing intimate relationships with core groups of passionate fans who will pay for tickets, merch and subscriptions.
What follows is a 101-level syllabus. Live tracks only, of course. If you get confused, listen to the music play.
We play bebop in the band,
Marc
Listen along while you read.
1. The Velvet Underground: “Sister Ray” (New York, N.Y.; April 30, 1967)
We begin with a bit of a troll. No, the Velvet Underground is not typically part of the jam canon: leather jackets and Wayfarers are not the uniform, and one can only imagine what Lou Reed would make of his band’s inclusion here. But shearing away your preconceptions and then listening to this rendition of “Sister Ray” may help you hear the hallmarks of jamming: spontaneity, collective improvisation, even aimless noodling. Fun fact: Two groups called themselves the Warlocks in 1965 before changing their names. One was the Velvet Underground. The other was the next band …
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2. Grateful Dead: “Dark Star” (Veneta, Ore.; Aug. 27, 1972)
Actually, few jam bands sound like the Grateful Dead. After all, the Dead, formed in 1960s San Francisco, came out of the worlds of jazz, folk, country, bluegrass. But culturally, the Dead was supremely influential to this scene: It set a template of musicianship and attitude in whose shadow every subsequent jam band has labored. You can stick a dancing-bear bumper sticker on your car no matter what. But for many die-hard Deadheads, the band came most alive during its ambitious, spacily out-there jams. For such fans, nothing could be more enticing than hearing the bass and the guitar — via Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia — sync for the opening riff that signals “Dark Star,” the band’s hardiest jam vehicle. Shall we go, you and I, while we can?
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3. Dave Matthews Band: “Dancing Nancies” (New York, N.Y.; Aug. 19, 1993)
No act here has achieved greater mainstream renown than the Dave Matthews Band (or “DMB,” or, annoyingly, “Dave”). They arguably did so by becoming less of a jam band: exploring a new studio sound, cutting back on jamming, reaching new (and more) listeners. Last October in Cleveland, the superfan Julia Roberts inducted them into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But in this 1993 recording, the group, still to release a full-length studio album, sounds every bit a jam band. The interplay in the final minutes among violin, saxophone, drums and the guest Warren Haynes’s guitar will be revelatory to those who have not heard the band in its earliest days.
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4. Phish: “Weekapaug Groove” (New York, N.Y.; Dec. 31, 1995)
When Garcia died in August 1995, Phish, founded a dozen years earlier in Vermont, suddenly became the biggest game in town. Its annual New Year’s Eve gig at Madison Square Garden that year caught the group at the height of its early powers; it was probably its most-circulated recording in the days of tape- and CD-trading, and remains the closest thing it has to a Cornell Show. It is a great place to start to understand why Phish — which, boasting the same four-man lineup for nearly four decades, still sells out arenas and records original albums — is unsurpassed in this scene.
The third set begins with the band emerging a little before midnight for a goofy gimmick, followed by “Auld Lang Syne” and then “Weekapaug Groove,” one of a minority of original songs written by the bassist Mike Gordon. Around the seven-minute mark, Phish moves into what connoisseurs call “Type II” jamming — untethered from the song’s melodies, rhythms, key. Thirteen minutes in, the group is fully improvising in tandem, a process Gordon has compared to stampeding buffalo simultaneously turning together. This is the good stuff.
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5. Widespread Panic: “The Wind Cries Mary > Papa’s Home > Driving Song” (Hampton, Va.; Nov. 27, 1999)
Covers are a crucial part of the jam band experience: The Dead played Dylan years before touring with him; Phish covered entire albums — among them Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light” and the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main St.” — during Halloween shows; Gov’t Mule slowed down “She Said, She Said” with ecstatic results. Here, Widespread Panic, the foremost exponent of the jam scene’s formidable Southern rock substream, takes on a Jimi Hendrix classic, and then partakes of another jam band chestnut, the segue — the seamless transition to a new song. Then it does it again.
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6. The String Cheese Incident: “Rivertrance” (Mt. Shasta, Calif.; Aug. 7, 2001)
A rootsy Colorado outfit boasting mandolin, violin and lap steel guitar, String Cheese Incident was a vital part of a 1990s jam band bumper crop. This “Rivertrance” has the complete experience: The fiddle introduces a quicker tempo, the drumming aggressively picks it up, the bass, piano and guitar follow, and an outro best described as “bluegrass with electric organ” caps it off.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music (a 2011 version) or YouTube (a 2013 version)
7. Goose: “Pancakes” (Port Chester, N.Y.; April 7, 2024)
They’re not booing, they’re saying “Goose!” Founded 11 years ago, the Connecticut-based Goose is the jam band with the largest following since Phish, with a sold-out Madison Square Garden date next month to match. The group has self-consciously fashioned itself as earlier acts’ successors while also assimilating influences from the world of indie rock — and making itself, and its live sets, very available to fans. The wonderful improvisations in this rendition from Goose’s triumphant four-night run last year at the Capitol Theater, a Westchester County jam-band mainstay, is thrilling.
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The Amplifier Playlist
“A 7-Song, 130-Minute Jam Band Primer” track list
Track 1: The Velvet Underground, “Sister Ray” (New York, N.Y.; April 30, 1967)
Track 2: Grateful Dead, “Dark Star” (Veneta, Ore.; Aug. 27, 1972)
Track 3: Dave Matthews Band, “Dancing Nancies” (New York, N.Y.; Aug. 19, 1993)
Track 4: Phish, “Weekapaug Groove” (New York, N.Y.; Dec. 31, 1995)
Track 5: Widespread Panic, “The Wind Cries Mary > Papa’s Home > Driving Song” (Hampton, Va.; Nov. 27, 1999)
Track 6: The String Cheese Incident, “Rivertrance” (Mt. Shasta, Calif.; Aug. 7, 2001)
Track 7: Goose, “Pancakes” (Port Chester, N.Y.; April 7, 2024)
Marc Tracy is a Times reporter covering arts and culture. He is based in New York.
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