Outside Inside
If the term "jam band" conjures up any number of negative stereotypes, Colorado's String Cheese Incident happily turn nearly all of them on their heads with this collection. The band's ostensible bluegrass roots are all but obscured by an adventurous tack that winds its way through R&B;, soul, reggae, country, and Latin influences, borrowing, mixing, and tweaking as it goes. Indeed, it's almost jarring when the band finally returns to its mountain-music origins on the Cajun-flavored "Up the Canyon." There's a distinctGrateful Deadsensibility at work throughout, with Bill Nershi and Michael Kang's fluid, lyrical lead lines occasionally recalling the best of Garcia and Weir. But there's a decidedly un-Dead economy of purpose in both the songwriting and soloing. The loping rhythms and tight, fat grooves seem more pronounced, perhaps the influence ofLos Lobos' Steve Berlin, who produced this solid pan-American musical adventure.--Jerry McCulley