CD REVIEW: Leftover Salmon's 'The Nashville Sessions' Updated 12:00 PM ET November 3, 1999 By Jacob Abbott Badger Herald U. Wisconsin (U-WIRE) MADISON, Wis. -- There's a school of groups out there, commonly referred to as "jam bands," who rely on incessant touring and loyal fan bases rather than radio play and video success to make their names in the music world. By now, we all know the list: Phish, Widespread Panic, moe., God Street Wine, and Rusted Root, to name a few. But, for the vast range of sounds these bands encompass, they all face the common handicap of falling under the awesome shadow of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, who for 30 years maintained one of the most dedicated and far-reaching communities of fans American music has ever known. It can't be an easy thing to live up to. But on their magnificent new album, The Nashville Sessions, Leftover Salmon channel the spirit of the Dead perhaps more effectively than anyone else to date. This includes Phish, the current heirs to much of Garica's audience, who covered the Dead song "Terrapin Station" in its entirety on the third anniversary of Garcia's death, offering a version that, for all its technical precision, just couldn't match the depth and soul of the original. Actually, The Nashville Sessions, a collection of songs in which Leftover Salmon collaborate with an all-star cast of their peers - including Bela Fleck, John Popper, John Bell of Widespread Panic and Lucinda Williams, to name just a few - is closer to the sound of the Jerry Garcia Band or the work Garcia did alongside John Grisman; heartfelt traditional folk tunes with a healthy twang and a heavy slant toward bluegrass. Garcia had a way of bringing the best elements of country music to an audience that might not have otherwise appreciated it, and this album does the same, with foot-stomping uptempo southern jams, punctuated by masterful banjo and pedal steel solos. The album kicks off with "Midnight Blues," an irresistibly brisk track featuring Del and Ronnie McCoury, quickly followed by a pair of like-minded bluegrass celebrations, "Lovin' in my Baby's Eyes," with Bela Fleck, and "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?" centered around wonderfully ragged vocals from Waylon Jennings. Other songs take a more somber approach; the version of the oft-interpreted "Nobody's Fault But Mine" that closes out the album captures the song's pain and heart with John Bell's mournful vocals over the band's twangy blues riffs. Few and far between are the moments that seem out of place, though "Dance on Your Head" comes off sounding a bit incongruous, echoing "I Wanna Be Like You" from "The Jungle Book" perhaps a little too closely. By and large, though, the disc manages to sidestep the unevenness that often plagues this type of collective effort. Obviously, there will never be another Jerry Garcia, and Leftover Salmon have done an admirable job of both cultivating their own sound and supplementing it with other masters of various forms. Still, the legacy of the Dead is stamped all over The Nashville Sessions. Not that Leftover Salmon are imitators without an ethos of their own, rather, they bring a rich understanding and appreciation of the tradition in which they work, making the album one of the best to come out of the genre in years.