Jam Bands

With both The Dead and Phish announcing summer tours, its a good time to start looking at their music, and why the drug culture is associated with the jam band scene. And it's not because drugs "makes the music better", even though detractors will tell you that you've got to be high to enjoy that stuff... Fact is, jazz musicians going back to Louis Armstrong (who was busted for it) smoked pot. The association both then and now, relates experiencing life and music "out of the box". Pot can be helpful in getting out of a rut - being open to a new approach. It worked for The Beatles...

Having seen both The Dead and Phish many times, I'll try to explore who is better at what, and why the Deadheads got it all wrong. Here is a good Phish vs Dead blog post that I agree with at Jungle Transmissions.