Phil Lesh and Jimmy Herring part ways

[kmh364]

If you want running info on the jam bands you mentioned, Relix magazine is for you. I got a free subscription for an order I placed with the Dead's store. Unfortunately, 90% of the bands covered are those mentioned above and then some, none of which I've heard before. Since there's not much Dead current events since Jerry's death (at least not enough to sustain a monthly magazine), Relix had to branch out to cover other musicians and forms of music in order to survive. Unfortunately for me, as a long time Dead Head, no jam band, however good, does it for me like the Dead. To me, it's like me, a long-time Harley devotee, riding a Yamaha Star or Honda Shadow (i.e., Japanese Harley clone): not gonna happen as only the original will do.
While a Relix subscription does nothing for me, it may for any of you into bands like Phish, Moe., etc.
 
Just my $0.02.

[tom_z]

I pick up Relix from time to time. They recently published an issue featuring Jerry and the Grateful Dead commemorating 40 years of the Dead and honoring Jerry 10 years after his departure - great issue.
 
The term jamband is tricky. I've seen artists as different as John Scofield and Allison Krause, Willie Nelson and Little Feat all lumped under the  Jamband flag. I think people like to be able to label and classify stuff and jamband makes it easier. If your band features instrumental improvisation and you stray from pretty strict Jazz conventions, you could be labeled a jamband.  
 
The bands I mentioned above obviously allow recording of their live performances, a legacy of the Grateful Dead, and are often labeled jamband as a result. Yonder Mountain String Band is a bluegrass band, though, and Robert Randolph has roots in the Sacred Steel tradition of Pentecostal churches.
 
For anyone who experienced the musical phenomenon, the X-Factor, the communication between the band and the audience that could occur at a Grateful Dead concert, I would think there wouldn't be anything quite like it. But there's a lot of amazing stuff out there that can send you to different musical and even spiritual places - regardless of how it?s labeled.
 
Kevin, you mentioned you haven't heard most of the music reported on in Relix, or that I mentioned above. You never know what might do it for you 'til you give it a listen. Phil and Bobby are still touring pretty actively, but the Grateful Dead is never again going to be the way you and I remember them. Don't give up on the possibility for that Live Music Connection that can transport you out of yourself.
 
Wow, I hope this doesn?t come off as too preachy. =)
 
Tom

[kmh364]

Tom,
 
I haven't heard 'em all, but I have heard some: Moe., Dave Mathews, Blues Traveller, Phish, Carl Denson's Tiny Universe, etc. Personally, they just don't do it for me. Call me spoiled by the Dead, but the current 'jam' band thing just isn't my thing. Granted, I am jaded and can be close-minded at times, but the current jam band scene I've heard so far isn't for me.
 
Jazz is cool, bluegrass is cool, bands like the Awesome Bros and Willie are cool, but I'm just not into the post-Jerry Dead influenced bands or their contemporaries.