Jamgrass Music and Jam Bands

Jamgrass Artists and Jam Bands:

Yonder Mountain Stringband
String Cheese Incident
Railroad Earth
The Grateful Dead
The Waybacks

Jamgrass and Jam Band Instruments of Choice:

Jamgrass is loosely based on bluegrass instrumentation, and many of the bands in jamgrass use the standard bluegrass line-up, including banjo, mandolin, guitar and bass, as well as the occasional fiddle and usually drums. Some bands also use electronic keyboards and other percussion instruments.

Starter CDs:

The Grateful Dead - Skeletons From the Closet (Warner Bros., 1973)
String Cheese Incident - Outside Inside (Sci Fidelity, 2001)
The Waybacks - Devolver (Fiddling Cricket, 2000)

Websites Dedicated to Jamgrass and Jam Bands:

JamBands.com focuses on jam bands, including rock jam bands as well as jamgrass and other variations.
JamBands.ca focuses on jam bands in Canada
Sci Fidelity Records is a jam band record company started by String Cheese Incident, which is home to Umphrey's McGee, SCI and many other bands.

Purchase/Download Songs by Jam Bands:

"Casey Jones" by the Grateful Dead
"Restless Wind" by the String Cheese Incident
"I Wanna Be Like You" by the Waybacks

More on Jam Bands and Jamgrass:

Jamgrass has evolved thanks, in no small part, to the Grateful Dead. GD lead singer Jerry Garcia was deeply rooted in the traditional and contemporary bluegrass scene when he started his band. The group began with a fairly typical bluegrass instrumental line-up, adding keyboards and drums, electric guitars, and other instruments along the way.

Blending rock, jazz, folk, blues and bluegrass styles, jamgrass elongates the instrumental solos typical of jazz and bluegrass. Often, the song will take on a new melody, key signature and rhythm during the long, wandering solos, before finding its way back to a hook or chorus that reminds the audience what song they're listening to. These solos can range from standard bluegrass and rock style solos to dreamy psychedelia, and beyond.