What's up cheeseheads, ski bums, and fellow travelers?
Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Bands, the podcast
where we dig deep into the music that makes you
close your eyes, raise your hands, and forget
what day it is. I'm your host Shecky, and today,
oh today, it's a good day. Today we're talking
about a band that started as a bunch of ski bums
goofing off in a mountain town in Colorado and
turned into one of the most beloved most innovative
and most flat out fun jam bands to ever walk
onto the stage. Today we're talking about the
string cheese incident. String cheese, CSI, the
cheese, whatever you call them. If you know,
you know. And if you don't, buckle up. By the
end of this episode, you're going to want to
clear your calendar, pull up nugs .net and disappear
into some live recordings. Don't say I didn't
warn you. All right, let's set the scene. It's
1993. The place is Cresta Butte, Colorado, a
tiny ski town tucked in the rocky mountains.
Elevation, 8 ,900 feet. Population, not very
many. And in this little mountain outpost, four
guys kept running into each other on the slopes
and around town. You've got Bill Nershy on acoustic
guitar. Michael Kang on mandolin and violin,
Keith Mosley on bass, and Michael Travis on drums.
These dudes were, by their own admission, ski
bums. They were not polished musicians looking
for a record deal. They just wanted to make enough
money to pay for the next day's ski lift. Travis,
the drummer, has been open about the fact that
he barely played drums before joining the outfit.
He was strictly hand percussion, congas, bongos,
but the rawness, that DIY spirit that became
part of their identity. Now, here's the origin
story moment that I absolutely love, because
it involves a food fight at a Mexican restaurant.
Yes, you heard me correctly. There was a legendary
powder week at Crested Butte. just epic snow
day after epic snow day, and eventually the whole
town was, quote, skied out. Everyone was exhausted.
And one afternoon, the locals piled into a place
called Donitas, which was this Mexican food joint
on the main strip. It started as a normal happy
hour, then it descended into a full restaurant
-wide food fight. Enchiladas, burritos, flying
through the air. Across the entire restaurant
nursery himself has said that that was the moment
that was the incident That was the energy chaotic
joyful completely unplanned the band had already
been calling it's themselves the blues string
cheese band Because they figured they were a
bluegrass group that also played and I love this
cheesy covers blue string cheese band, but the
name felt a little too wordy. After the enchilada
apocalypse at Donita's, Nershe and crew just
started calling it the string cheese incident.
They made a t -shirt, Nershe carved a woodblock
print logo himself, and once the merch existed,
there was no going back. You made the t -shirt,
you're the band. Now, interestingly, at some
point, the band considered changing the name.
Kang has admitted they thought, is this really
going to be our name? But then hundreds of people
already knew them by that name. And that's when
they made a decision that I think defines everything
about this band. They said, if we're going to
keep this name, we have to make every show an
incident. And from that point forward, they committed
to exactly that. So after the first performance,
which was literally a 15 -minute slot at a local
talent night, SCI started playing wherever they
could. Ski resorts, private functions, weddings.
They got paid in lift tickets. No, seriously,
free lift tickets were a form of compensation
early on. By 1995, they had made it to California.
By 1996, all four original members made the big
decision, quit their day jobs, moved to Boulder,
and go all in on the music. That same year, they
performed nearly 170 shows, 170 shows, I'll repeat
it, in a year. That's a relentless pace. And
it was right around the same time that they decided
to expand the lineup. They were a string band.
Mandolin, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and they
started to feel the limitations of that palette.
They wanted to sustain. They wanted an organ
to fill the spaces between the plunky string
sounds. They envisioned a keyboard player before
they even knew who they wanted. Enter Kyle Hollingsworth.
Kyle was playing in a local Boulder band when
SCI found him. Kyle joined in the fall of 1996
and the band was never the same. Then in 2004
and 2005, depending on which source you trust,
They brought in Jason Hahn on auxiliary percussion.
You've got six people on stage and the rhythmic
foundation becomes absolutely monstrous. Hahn
brought a whole new dimension of world music
and electronic influence percussion to the sound.
By late 1990s, SCI was one of the most popular
acts on the jam band circuit, right up there
with Fish and Widespread Panic, in terms of buzz
and following. and they did it the old -fashioned
way, relentless touring, taking care of their
fans, building community from the ground up.
I have to spend a few minutes on this because
it's generally remarkable and it often gets overlooked
when people talk about SEI's legacy. These guys
were not just great musicians, they were pioneers
of an entirely new way of being a band. When
the internet was just getting off the ground
in the mid to late 1990s, when the major label
model was creaking and groaning. The string cheese
incident went independent and built their own
ecosystem. They weren't signed to a major label.
They found SCI Fidelity Records, their own label,
in 1998. They ran their own management company,
their own merchandising company, and their own
ticketing company, and even had a fan travel
agency so that dedicated followers could book
trips to follow the the band on tour. Think about
that, a travel agency for fans. In 1998, these
guys invented what we now call the 360 degree
artist model before it had a name. They were
also among the very first artists to put all
of their live shows online for free. Every single
show they played was made available through their
own on -the -road series on Nugs .net. They embraced
file sharing and digital distribution when the
record industry was fighting a tooth and nail.
They understood something profound. Their fans
weren't their enemies. Their fans were their
greatest asset. Share the music, build the community,
trust the people you love. And in 2002, when
Ticketmaster tried to prevent them from selling
tickets directly to their fans, SCI didn't back
down. They filed a lawsuit against one of the
most powerful companies in the entertainment
business. over the right to sell their tickets
on their own, that kind of backbone standing
up for the independent music community cemented
their status as not just a great band, but a
great institution. They also walked the walk
on environmental sustainability because among
the first acts to push for green touring, they
helped launch non -profits like Conscious Alliance
and Headcount. These were not just musicians,
these were community builders. Okay, let's talk
about the music because that's, at the end of
the day, that's what we're really here for. The
genius of string cheese incident is that you
cannot put them in a box. The roots are bluegrass,
the campfire jams, the flat picking, the love
of new grass revival and bella fleck, but they
took that and exploded it into something that
incorporates rock, funk, jazz, reggae, calypso,
latin, electronica, psychedelica. and progressive
rock, sometimes all within the same song, sometimes
within the same jam. Kang said once, improvisation
isn't about kicking butt chops. It's about getting
into space together where you're creating good
cohesive music as a group. And that's exactly
what SCI does. The jams don't feel like five
guys showing off. They feel like a single organism
making decisions in real time. There's a musicality
and a care for their improvisation that sets
them apart. Every member writes original compositions.
Every member sings. This is not a one person
show. This is, as some people describe, a democratic
ensemble. And the democracy produces a remarkable
breadth of material. So if you're new to string
cheese, here's a listening guide. I'm going to
walk you through the essential song. that makes
them so special and why you need this song in
your life. You should start with Land's End.
This is a Bill Nershe composition that dates
back to their very first album, Born on the Wrong
Planet. It's a sweeping atmospheric piece, starts
with a gentle melodic theme, then builds into
extended territory that can go anywhere on any
given night. It has that quality the best Jim
band songs have. where the written parts feel
like a launch pad rather than a destination.
Live versions can stretch into 15 to 20 minute
range. It's one of the most requested songs that
has ever left the rotation after three decades.
If you want to understand the core of SCI is
about melodically and emotionally, please start
here. There's tons of other live jams you should
see. One you should definitely check out is the
Asheville Rollover Sandwich. November 11th, 2000.
Okay, let's get into some wild and wonderful
facts about the string cheese incident that you
might not know. Sims and Skrillex. You read it
correctly. String Cheese Incident once re -recorded
their song Close Your Eyes entirely in Simlish,
the fictional language from the video game The
Sims, for a Sims soundtrack. Then in 2015, they
collaborated with EDM superstar Skrillex, a bluegrass
rooted Colorado Jam band, and the king of dubstep.
The collaboration happened. They had 220 shows
in a year at the height of their powers. SCI
was performing upward of 220 shows in a single
calendar year. That's almost a show every other
day. No wonder they built a travel agency for
their fans. Their fans need one. The acrobats
and the light shows. While SCI became known for
integrating elaborate stage productions into
the live shows, acrobats, circus performers,
multi -angle lights rigging with fixtures that
created UFO -like visuals, their lighting designer
Andy Kass became famous in the industry for the
scale and vision of these designs. They were
not just a band, they were full of sensory experience.
I mentioned before the lawsuit against Ticketmaster.
They were willing to fight a billion dollar corporation
to protect their fans. They were a leftover salmon
cover band. So Drew Emmett, co -founder of the
Colorado Jam Legends Leftover Salmon, has confirmed
that string cheese began partly as a band that
covered leftover salmon material from cover band
to headlining in Bonnaroo. That's a real journey.
So what do we say about the string cheese incident?
as we close this out. Here's what I keep coming
back to. The name. The incident. They committed
early on that every show needed to be an incident.
Something worth talking about. Something you
didn't expect. Something that made you feel like
you were present for something unrepeatable.
And for over three decades they have delivered
on that promise. Not every night is the Asheville
rollover sandwich or the Fillmore with Ricky
Skaggs, but every night There is that attempt.
Every night there is that spirit of where are
we going to create something tonight that has
never existed before and will never exist again.
That is what improvised music is for. That is
what the string cheese incident is for. They
built their own world, their own label, their
own ticketing, their own travel agency, their
own community, and they did it in service of
the music and the fans. In an era when major
labels We're failing and artists were being crushed.
SCI looked at the landscape and said, we're doing
this ourselves. That take combined with music,
that is the legacy that's impossible to overstate.
If you've never seen them live and they're still
touring, please fix that. Go to a show, get there
early, find a spot with a good view of the whole
stage. And when they start to jam, Just let go.
Let the incident happen to you. Thank you so
much for tuning into Shecky's Jam Bands. This
has been a labor of love. Next week, we'll be
back with another deep dive into another band
that changed the way that we think about live
music. Until then, keep jamming, keep traveling,
and remember, every night is an incident if you're
paying attention.