All Jam Bands Episodes

Over the 22 year span of Sound Tribe Sector 9, the Jamtronica outfit has produced studio albums, released live recordings, streamed concerts, made DVDs available of performances and shared incredible content with their fans. They are amongst the most prolific bands in terms of producing material so much so that it's incredibly staggering to even discuss. 2020 was to be a new year, filled with lots of live performances, giving back and making the world a better place with a relaunch of their non-profit The Just Thanks Organization and a release of a new series of live mashups in a volume called Visions Tapes. Save for the live performance agenda which of course was cut short because of Covid19, the band has already made a $25,000 pledge to Redwood League and they've released the first of the Visions Tapes project. So when I caught up with bassist Alana Rocklin I was curious to know what made the band decide to release these mash-ups as a mix-tape on Visions Tapes. For more on STS9 visi…

I first heard Mike Mattison’s voice, like so man my of us did, listening to Derek Trucks Band records, but truly, the break through was a song called Sweet Inspiration. But Mike is more than just a singer as his now with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, he is a musician, a songwriter, an incredibly talented artist. He’s made records with a project called Scrapomatic, which is, as you’d expect rooted in blues, but After Glow a solo record,  shows his breadth as a songwriter, and the palette of sounds at his disposal. After Glow, his second solo record offers more than what you’d probably expect. It’s filled with Americana, Country and more, giving us some insight into the singer songwriter and artist Mike actually is.

Pacific Range are a new band out of Los Angeles that we are really digging. In fact, their new album High Upon the Mountain is one of our favorite records of the year so far, and for good reason. The band's sound is a throwback to stuff we really dig, like the Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead, The Byrds, and Crosby Stills and Nash. The four piece uses harmonies, sweet grooves, and great guitar licks, to bring you into a very laid back west coast vibe. All kinds of people we have talked to in the past were involved in the project so we were stoked to learn more about the band. So we contacted Curation Records, a new label also out of LA and got in touch with Seamus Turner, the band's principle songwriter, vocalist and lead guitar player.For more on Pacific Range visit pacificrangeband.com. 

We’ve been in the Goose hunt for quite some time. In fact, back in 2018 both Peter and Rick joined us to talk about the band and their opening slot on Spafford’s spring tour. Ever since then, we’ve been heaping tons of praise on them and scurrying around to find their music, buy their music and share their music with you. Today, the guys release their first live record, a collection of tunes from the past year, a really important time in the bands evolution.  “Alive and Well” is more than just a compilation. It’s a really solid collection if you’re a fan, but also extremely accessible for people new to Goose. We caught up with Peter, Rick, Trevor and Ben to talk about a bunch of topics, and as you’ll hear, they were candid and somewhat humbled by their current circumstance as being one of THE bands on the scene right now.

We’ve had John Lovero of The Higgs on before and in the time since, their prominence as more than just an LA jam band has certainly grown. They’ve added new management and have opened for Twiddle and other well known Jam Bands on the scene. Rose Will Fall is an unbelievable mix of live music from The Higgs. Exciting stuff ahead for The Higgs and you know we’ll be following their story and bringing you updates as we hear or get them. For more info visit thehiggsmusic.com.

I’ve been a fan of keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth of The String Cheese Incident for well over two decades, and he’s always been on my list as someone I wanted to talk with about not only his music but also that of String Cheese. With a new EP out for about a month now, I decided it was a good time to catch up and learn more about his solo working while pruning some insights on String Cheese as well. I can tell you, our conversation was very enlightening and he was very engaging for longer than I had anticipated. 

For the uninitiated, The Garcia Project is the brainchild of Mik Bondy. The band, who are celebrating their 10th anniversary is a tribute to the Jerry Garcia Band and perform live versions of the JGB show from 1976 through 1995. They recently put out Spirit a collection of inspirational and spiritual songs the Jerry Garcia Band performed. We caught up with Mik to talk about the project and our conversation started when I asked what inspired the record and it’s packaging. For more visit thegarciaproject.com

It’s an interesting time for Circles Around the Sun having tragically lost one of the founding members Neal Casal this past summer. I was curious how the band and long time friend Adam MacDougall was coping with what must be a series of emotions ahead of the release of this third record, which naturally has guitar player Casal’s work all over it. We caught up with Adam just before the Circles Around the Sun gig at the Sinclair in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While our heart felt conversation covered several different topics including the release of this very peppy record, it started sadly with Casal’s passing. You can pre-order the record and check out more tour dates at circlesaroundthesun.com

The Green Leaf Rustlers are an all-star group of musicians fronted by Chris Robinson that includes Barry Sless on pedal steel, Greg Loiacono on guitar, Pete Sears on bass and John Molo on drums. These should all be household names and together in the Rustlers they make this hippified country music, that needs to be heard. Typically the band plays covers of outlaw and classic country plus music thats been influenced by that scene. With a double live record coming out March 6th, From within Marin, we wanted to catch up with someone involved in the project, and were giddy with anticipation when we heard we'd get to chat with Barry Sless. 

Silver Moon marks the 10th solo record for Jono Manson, and while you may not know exactly who he is, you should. In fact Jono should be credited with helping re-start the neo-jam band scene in New York. That is to say, his band The Worms, an eclectic dive bar rock band playing out of Nightingale’s in New York paved the way for bands like Blues Traveler, The Spin Doctors and Joan Osborne.  They were all big fans of his work, and continue to lend a hand today. So when we got the absolute privilege to talk with Jono, that’s where our conversation started when I asked if he thought his eclectic sonic pot pourri of sound was indeed responsible for the neo jam band movement of the early 90s and since.

Truth is, we've become really good friends with Reid over the years and are in awe of how he's able to bring musicians together, to share in the love of the jam, the songs and good times. First I was a fan of Strangefolk, Assembly of Dust and his solo work and continue to be, but he is a really solid dude, who has on several occasions taken time out in his life to offer some solid advice. So it's with great pleasure that we welcomed him in to chat about Reid Genauer and Folks - Extended Release and his upcoming tour if for no other reason than to get the pronunciation of his name correct. For more visit reidgenauer.com and please see him on the road, in fact when you do, tell him "Ira says hi". 

I'm sure all over the United States there are pockets of great jam band communities that embrace new artists, new incarnations of bands and the spread of awesome live music. I've been hearing for about a year now about a band called Neighbor from the Boston area, led by "friend of the show" Richard James, who you may know as the keyboard player and one of the vocalists in Pink Talking Fish. At his side, on lead guitar, is another New England native and a childhood neighbour of Rich's as luck would have it, guitar dynamo Lyle Brewer. So we tracked down Rich and I insisted he give me all the juicy goods on Neighbor, their fans "Neighbors" and how this small band has a very exciting 2020 ahead, one year after their incarnation. 

The Kudrachrone EP marks a rebirth of sorts for Turkuaz, taking the band back to a more soulful R&B sound more similar to the Stereochrome EP.  In fact, they’ve also shelved the colorful outfits of the last several album cycles in favor of just four colors for their on stage presence; white, black, tan and grey.  Dave Brandwein has always been really great about joining us on the podcast to explain what is going on with Turkuaz, but this time we also invited Dani, his wife, and the band’s creative director on to help explain this new chapter. 

We’ve been Aqueous fans since we started this podcast, and we’re so impressed with how they are maturing as a band, from their process, to their sound and even their identity. It’s great to see and hear. So we caught up with Mike Gantzer, lead guitar and vocalist with the band to talk about the new Burn it Down EP and much more. 

Everything old is new again with The New Deal. This jamtronica band who basically invented the genre in 1998 have released a new album Phoenix, and have welcomed Davide Di Renzo to the drummer's chair. For those unaware, Di Renzo was actually the trio's drummer at their first gig back at the University of Guelph some two decades ago. This three piece made up of Jamie Shields on keyboards and synths, Dan Kurtz on guitar and now Davide Di Renzo are back on the road exploring one another, their music and their relationship with their fans.

Spafford dropped their EP The Gaff Tapes late last week, specifically on nugs.net as a preview for fans who wanted to see what they were up to. Today that EP is available everywhere you listen to music. Like me, fans on-line got very excited about the new tunes and were anxious to share their thoughts on them. We've always had a great relationship with the band, so we decided to get in touch with Brian Moss, the band's guitar player, and one of their vocalists to discuss The Gaff Tapes and the band's plans for their upcoming fall and winter tour. Our conversation started, when I asked Brian why the quartet decided to put out this EP now. For more information on The Gaff Tapes and their tour schedule visit Spafford.net.

Colonel & the Mermaids is a project from Alex Koford, a Bay area native who has been toiling for the most part at Phil Lesh's Terrapin Crossroads the last seven years and has been a part of The Terrapin Family Band amongst other side projects. Colonel & the Mermaids is Alex's chance to create his own music, shape his own band's future and create his own future in the industry and community. That is no small task, but as you'll hear, it's one that he isn't taking lightly and one that he is prepared to invest a lot of time, energy and money. We sat down with Alex who is about to come east for a small tour and our conversation started when I asked what the sonic aim of the band is. If the effort, and indeed the music is any indication, I suspect we will be hearing from Colonel & the Mermaids for quite some time. You can learn more about Colonel & the Mermaids including tour dates at colonelandthemermaids.com. 

You know all about Marco Benevento if you have been part of the jam band scene for a while. What probably isn’t obvious based on his most recent works, is that he hasn’t always been the singer-songwriter he is now. His new record Let it Slide drops September 20th, and as you’ll hear his focus has always been more on instrumental music, but this record is filled hot dance piano rock, and he sings on almost every track. Another great feature of this record, besides the pop-py tones and throw back sounds is the role Marco Benevento's bassist Karina Rykman plays as a vocalist. It’s all good fun and certainly a departure from previous work. We dig Marco a lot, so we dialed him up and our conversation started when I asked specifically about his new role as singer in the band...For more information on Let it Slide and to check tour dates visit, marcobenevento.com. 

While we’ll get into some Umphrey’s business throughout the discussion, our focus is actually on a book he co-authored with Matt DeCoursey “The Realist’s Guide to a Successful Music Career”. It’s a great read with fabulous insight and a no BS approach to advice. Lots of musicians give some candid interviews too like Huey Lewis, Jake Cinniger, Taylor Hicks, to name just a few and some pretty cool music industry types like Pete Shapiro. I have a great deal of admiration for anyone who sets out to find their passion and attempts to build a career around it. In Joel’s case, he’s had success, and now he is sharing some secrets to help others get to their goals while avoiding some pitfalls. The book, is available on Amazon, Kindle and will be on sale at UM shows and at the UM online store. For more visit umphreysmcgee.com or search for Joel Cummins at Amazon.com.

moe. is on tour with Blues Traveler and G.Love, while also spending time at festivals including their own, moe.down held earlier this summer. moe. has long been on our radar since their early days playing tiny shows here in Toronto, while they made their mark on the Jam Band scene through the mid 90s. So it was great to catch up with Rob Derhak who had a significant health scare and put the band on hiatus for a bit, but they are back as fierce and jammy as ever. For more on moe. including tour dates and such visit moe.org (yes, that’s how long they’ve had a website). 

The Jam Band community owes a debt of gratitude to Blues Traveler, who in many ways pioneered the neo Jam Band scene back in the late 80s and early 90s. In fact, they supported the post Garcia Jam Band scene by putting on the HORDE festival, which is the pre-cursor to Lockn' or even Bonnarroo for that matter. I've always been a fan of the band and fondly remember listening to them lots and going to see them. But it's been a while since I had, but they came through Toronto recently, after a long hiatus and wanted to catch up. Chan Kinchla, the founding guitarist made some time, which was a thrill for sure. Our conversation started when I reminded Chan of his Canadian heritage, since he was born in Hamilton, a stone's throw from Toronto. To learn more about Blues Traveler's tour schedule and other happenings visit bluestraveler.com

Turkuaz recently released Afterlife Vol. 2, a collection of songs that didn't make their last album, Life in the City or the first EP Afterlife Vol. 1 and it features tracks that continue to see the band evolve and experiment. "Better Get Ready" as an example stretches the boundries of funk into what can only be described as a rock sound. We're impressed that they are bold enough to take chances and try new things. Thats brave. So we caught up with Dave "Blue" Brandwein to talk about the second volume of Afterlife to see what the band has going on, and what their plans are for the future. Our conversation started when I suggested to Dave that this final Afterlife EP puts a nice two year bow on all the band has been working on. To find out more visit turkuazband.com. 

ALO have just released a new EP Creatures, Vol. 1: Spark. The EP features four great tracks, by the the ALO quartet of Zach Gill on keyboards on vocals, Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz on guitars and vocals, Steve Adams on bass and vocals and Ezra Lipp on Drums. Lipp has joined the band officially now as Dave Brogan departs for personal pursuits. We are big fans of ALO music, and the band members. Getting to talk to them, is like old home week, and we generally gel and laugh right out of the gate. So I decided to get Zach and Lebo on the line to talk about the plan for these new EPs and more. You should definitely check out alomusic.com for news, tour dates including details on Camp Deep End and much more. 

I spent the last few days in Boston, MA, catching the pair of Phish shows at Fenway Park, and those were awesome. Luckily for me, Spafford, a band that we've featured on the show a couple of times and on LiveFive numerous times were also in town playing two after Phish shows at the Sinclair in Cambridge, MA, and third show Sunday at the Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury, MA. Having never seen the band live, I was pretty psyched to take in all the sights and sounds and get a feel for what I imagined in my head would be a pretty great experience. I can tell you first hand now, that Spafford is a band that needs to be seen live, and at the very least, their performances need to be heard via nugs.net if you can't make a show. I've traded notes with Brian specifically quite a bit over the last two years, but getting to hang with him in person, and talk to the rest of the band was quite a treat. They don't have an album immediately coming out, or any big announcement, because they are done…