One Step Closer

The String Cheese Incident operate in an alternate jam-band universe where records are just fodder for endless tours. So it’s refreshing that the songs on their latest album aren’t merely formless showcases for their improvisational skills, but rather tight, concise tunes with well-defined beginnings and ends. Much like the way their spiritual godfathers the Grateful Dead occasionally distilled their folk, country, bluegrass, and rock interests into manageable albums like American Beauty or Workingman’s Dead, String Cheese put the emphasis on songwriting here. All five bandmembers take a shot at singing and while none of them do it particularly well, their voices suit the songs’ understated charms. “Big Compromise” is a swaying country tune, highlighted by undercurrents of organ and dobro. On “Until The Music’s Over,” the band works a loping, Dylanesque blues groove toward a vibrant, hooky chorus. One Step Closer may leave String Cheese die-hards jonesing for wild, wooly jams, but the rest of us are plenty satisfied…and that's not just the weed brownies talking.