Knowing how to play well seems to have become a significant disadvantage commercially.
Videos also seem to have shortened the attention span of their victims to a matter of seconds.
So it's something of a surprise that rock bands who play long instrumental jams seem to be experiencing a significant revival. Inspired by the Grateful Dead, whose expansive improvisational performances were legendary, a second generation of jam bands has appeared and proliferated, led by Phish, who seem to have inherited the Dead's mantle, down to the modus operandi of their fans. Groups like The String Cheese Incident , Moe and some of the new Southern Rock bands like Jupiter Coyote have become known for their spirited live performances with extended instrumental improvisations, enhanced by outstanding musicianship. At the same time, so-called New Acoustic Music maintains a following for a genre of jazzy music played on the instrumentation of bluegrass, though usually with fairly tightly structured arrangements. It would therefore seem only natural that a New Acoustic jam band make its presence known, and that is what we have this week.