The revival of Jam
I took a dive into the music and entertainment beat and discovered a new genre that I was unfamiliar with: jam grass
Jamgrass is a hybrid style of multiple genres of music that has recently skyrocketed in popularity. To understand all of the craze, I had to call in some help.
I interviewed Liz Menapace who is a jam grass enthusiast that has traveled to multiple states and countries to catch the latest in the jam grass scene. She has been attending concerts for the last 32 years now and is deeply rooted in the community. I had the opportunity to ask her questions to find out more about this style of music and figure out what all the hype was about over the phone. After a few minutes of conversation, I dove into some questions.
Q: What is jamgrass? I only heard about it recently.
A: Well jamgrass is a newer version of bluegrass. Bluegrass is a traditional American musical form but jamgrass takes some of the elements of that style but adds more “jamming”. Musicians are freer to add more musical inspiration or freestyle with their instruments. It seems like there is a lot of inspiration from other music forms like pop or rock. It (Jamgrass) seems to be really blowing up right now.
Q: Why is jamgrass making a resurgence all of the sudden?
A: It seems to appeal to people who like bands like the Grateful Dead or Phish because of musicians’ ability to explore and jam (or experiment). The scene has been growing over the last twenty or so years but artists like Billy Strings have really made the movement popular.
Q: That's really interesting that other fanbases can come together, so what specifically interests you about this music?
I don’t love traditional bluegrass but I really like the mash-up that many of the jamgrass bands are doing. It mixes the instruments of bluegrass (usually just string instruments) with all kinds of styles. I’ve recently seen Billy Strings, Kitchen Dwellers, and Greensky Bluegrass and loved them. Billy Strings grew up playing old school bluegrass so he still plays a lot of traditional tunes. But my favorites are songs that are more rock or when he covers other artists like the Grateful Dead or Bob Dylan. All the jamgrass bands have different styles but the songs that I love are dancy and fun.
Jamgrass artists:
Q: With its huge resurgence and increase in popularity, where do you see the jamgrass scene going?
A: Well, it probably is going to get more popular. I have tons of fun seeing these bands in smaller clubs but it’s almost impossible to do with musicians like Billy Strings now. I recently traveled to Europe to see him play since it’s probably the last time that he’ll be playing small venues for a while. It now seems like jamgrass allows bands to be more mainstream than regular bluegrass because you can appeal to more people with songs that are fun to dance to or covers of a Prince song or a reggae tune that they might recognize.
With jamgrass growing in popularity and no end in sight, the sky is the limit for this new genre and where it can take the music industry and its communities.