The String Cheese Incident (SCI) has a sound that is full of a mixture of rock, salsa, bluegrass, country and reggae. The band’s music has been classified as ‘jam band.’ Jam band is a way of playing music, it describes the freestyle artistic creation of playing music, and it does not classify the sound of the music.
SCI is a five member band that has a full unique sound:
Michael Kahn plays mandolin, guitar and sings, but not just the traditional mandolin style one might expect in bluegrass playing. At times Kahn plays a custom 5 string mandolin that sounds more like an electric guitar, than a mandolin.
Kyle Hollingworth plays keyboards and sings. Kyle adds a very unique sound to the band by adding accordion to various arrangements. His funky style adds a ‘Stevie Wonder’ style to the music.
Keith Mosely plays electric and acoustic stand up bass guitar for the band. He sings lead vocals on many songs and backup vocals on many songs.
Billy Nershi plays acoustic and electric guitars and sings for the band. Billy adds almost a dreamy quality to the bands music with his great pentatonic runs and slide playing.
Michael Travis plays percussion. Michaels drumming is amazing. He can quickly change tempos and styles from playing rock on a traditional drum set to playing African and salsa on congas.
Jason Hann is the new member to the band adding more percussion. Jason adds timbales, congas and bells to the bands back beat.
The band repertoire includes cover songs along with their own songs. Some of the cover songs they play have a very unique twist to them. For instance on their debut album “The String Cheese Incident” the band play’s a bluegrass loaded version of the Aerosmith rock classic “Walk this Way.” On their three night concert celebrating New Years Eve live album, the band plays the Rocky Horror Picture Show classic “Time Warp.
The album “Round the Wheel” contains some of the most popular and favorite songs in the band’s repertoire. “100 years flood” is a great song that tells the story of a town that subjected to a flood approximately every 100 years. Restless Wind” has all of the making of a classic rock classic. It has great acoustic guitar licks that quickly get stuck in your mind and lyrics that remind you of being young again. Good Times Around the Bend” tell the story that we all know, that life is a roller coaster with it’s up and downs, enjoy the ups and don’t the down get you down. The “Round the Wheel” never misses a beat; all of the songs are great and mixes greatly into the next song.
The album Carnival (released in 1999) contains the high powered cover of a bluegrass classic “Shenandoah Breakdown”. Other hard core favorites of String Cheese are “Hey Pocky Way,” “Black clouds” and “Texas.”
The album “Outside Inside” also contains some classic songs. “Joyful Sound” has a reggae rhythm that will soon have everyone dancing. “Rollover” also has a Caribbean sound that will make you move your feet. The uplifting “Sing a New Song” will lift anyone’s spirits.
The DVD “Live from the Fillmore” the band plays an acoustic set with Ricky Skaggs and his bluegrass band. Their short bluegrass set had fans jumping.
The String Cheese Incident is a great band that touches many musical styles and listeners are guarantied to find something that appeal to them in their music.
Good Links for String Cheese Music:
www.stringcheeseincident.com the official website of the band.
www.livecheese.com bands official website to download live string cheese concerts in various formats.
www.scigear.com bands website for purchasing String cheese gear.
www.archive.org a great website that contains over 1000 String Cheese concerts that are free to download.
