The Colorado band that took bluegrass instruments to the jam-band world, fusing them with rock, funk, and electronica and building a festival empire along the way.
The Short Version
Who Are They?
The String Cheese Incident are a Colorado jam band, formed in 1993, who took the instruments and repertoire of bluegrass and folded them into the world of long-form improvisation, rock, funk, electronica, and Latin and world music. Built around Bill Nershi's guitar, Michael Kang's mandolin and electric mandolin, and Kyle Hollingsworth's keyboards, they helped define what jamgrass could be.
More than a band, they became a movement, building a grassroots festival empire and a devotion among fans that rivals almost anyone in the jam scene. Following the trail that Jerry Garcia blazed by playing bluegrass alongside rock, they are one of the bands at the heart of the jamgrass world Marcel maps out.
The light show, half the experience of a jamgrass show.From Ski-Town Bars to Red Rocks
The Story
Their story is a grassroots one: a band that built an empire from the ground up, one marathon show at a time.
Colorado, the band's home and spiritual center.
1993
A ski-town band
The String Cheese Incident formed in the Colorado mountains, playing bluegrass-rooted music for ski crowds and building a following fast.
1996
The sound expands
With Kyle Hollingsworth's keyboards, the band pushed beyond bluegrass into funk, rock, and electronica, becoming a full jam band.
late 1990s–2000s
The empire
They built their own ticketing, management, and festivals, a fan-first grassroots operation that reshaped how jam bands did business.
2000s
Festival kings
Marathon improvisational shows and multi-day festivals made them one of the biggest draws in the jam world.
2007–09
Hiatus and return
The band took a hiatus, then returned, and has remained a beloved touring and festival act ever since.
Three Recordings, One Introduction
Start Here
These three are the fastest way to hear the band: the signature, the jam vehicle, and the festival anthem.
01 · The Signature
"Black Clouds"
One of the band's best-loved songs, a great introduction to their sound. Start here.
02 · The Jam Vehicle
"Rollover"
A funky, propulsive tune that opens up into the long improvisation the band is known for.
03 · The Festival Anthem
"Best Feeling" (with Keller Williams)
Live at Red Rocks, the joyful, communal spirit of a String Cheese show.
The Catalog
The Essential Records 4 to start with
Four records, though as with any jam band, the live shows are where the real magic lives.
1997
A String Cheese Incident
The debut, closest to the band's bluegrass roots. Start here.
The String Cheese Incident sit at a crucial junction in the family tree, where bluegrass instruments meet jam-band culture. They grew out of the same ski-town bluegrass scene as Leftover Salmon, but from the start they were happy to follow a song wherever it led, into a funk vamp, an electronica breakdown, a Latin groove, or a twenty-minute improvisation. What ties it all together is the mandolin, guitar, and upright-bass core, the bluegrass DNA that never disappears no matter how far out the jam goes.
Like the Grateful Dead before them, the real String Cheese experience is live. Their studio albums are good, but the band exists to play long, exploratory shows for a crowd that treats each night as a unique event, tape-trading, following the tour, building a community. That ethos, inherited directly from the Dead and from Jerry Garcia's own bluegrass adventures, is the beating heart of jamgrass, and String Cheese are among its founding fathers.
They also changed the business. By building their own ticketing, management, and festivals, the band pioneered a fan-first, do-it-yourself model that many jam acts followed. That infrastructure helped create the modern festival landscape where jamgrass thrives, the same world where bands like Greensky Bluegrass and the Infamous Stringdusters now flourish. String Cheese did not just play the music; they helped build the room it lives in.
The festival, the band's natural habitat.The Roots of the Sound
Influences
String Cheese grew from bluegrass and the jam-band tradition in equal measure. These are the sources.
The Jam Blueprint
Grateful Dead
The band that invented the improvisational, community-driven model String Cheese follow.
String Cheese connect the Dead lineage with the modern jamgrass world.
Grateful Dead: the band that invented the whole jam-and-community model. See the guide.
Jerry Garcia: whose bluegrass side is the taproot of jamgrass. See the guide.
Greensky Bluegrass: the modern jamgrass band in the same lineage. See the guide.
Sam Bush: the newgrass frontier that opened the door. See the guide.
Their live archive: as with any jam band, the shows, not the studio albums, are the main event.
The Way to Listen
Find a full live show, not just a single. The String Cheese Incident are built for the long journey of a concert, and that is where their music truly opens up.
