Whatcha looking at? Did Jerry just drop out of the clouds?In the hip circle of music critics to which I pretend to belong,
admitting that you like jam bands is akin to wearing Velcro shoes in
public or showing off the collection of G.I. Joes you keep beneath your
bed - it isn't going to give you too many cool points. I like indie
rock, indie folk, indie power pop, indie hip-hop (indie, while once an
abbreviation of "independent," now seems to mean "cool") and a good
deal of other genres and styles, but I've held fast to my fascination
with the noodles and genre mashing only found in the poorly labeled
"jam band" arena.
Jeff Mattson plays guitar and sings in The Zen
Tricksters, a New York-based quartet with heavy Grateful Dead
influences and affiliations, and he too likes jam bands - probably
because he plays in one (two, actually). While Zen Tricksters has been
Mattson's band for the past couple of decades, he, along with the rest
of his band, also meet up and tour with former Dead vocalist Donna Jean
Godchaux McKay to form Donna Jean and the Tricksters.
