A String Cheese Incident

Album Review

It may seem odd to have a 70-minute CD with only ten cuts, but this is par for the course when you're listening to a good jam band like the String Cheese Incident. Especially live. Unlike Carnival '99, A String Cheese Incident documents only one show from the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO, on February 27th, 1997. The ten-minute "Lonesome Fiddle Blues" kicks things off, featuring an instrumental barrage, ranging from Michael Kang on the electric violin to Kyle Hollingsworth on organ. Kang's jazzy samba "Pirates" gives the band plenty of room to show off their instrumental prowess without meandering. This ability to stay focused, even during the loosest of jams, keeps the music vital and the listener involved. On the standout "Land's End," the music ebbs and flows, alternating between flaming intensity and transient beauty. The band leaves room for lots of other surprises on A String Cheese Incident. Their version of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" is a real mindbender, starting with heavy guitar riffs, only to dive into one of the finest Western swing versions of a rock song ever recorded. Between '70s rock and fusion jams, the band also shows its respect for bluegrass on "Dudley's Kitchen" and the Stanley Brothers' "How Mountain Girls Can Love." "How Mountain Girls Can Love" gives the band a chance to show off their harmony singing while still leaving room — in this short, three-minute romp — for nifty guitar, piano, and mandolin solos. Although a listener could find more live String Cheese Incident on the two-CD set, Carnival '99, A String Cheese Incident offers a fine introduction to the group. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., Rovi