...In between dosages of Grateful Dead, I supercharged with some early Fleetwood Mac. In their late 60s and early 70s incarnations, the Dead and the Mac seem to complement each other nicely. It's not that they sound alike. Nobody sounds like the Grateful Dead. I hate it when people find out that I'm a head and assume that I'll also like New Riders of the Purple Sage, or Quicksilver, or Hot Tuna, or Little Feat. I don't like any of that stuff. I don't like 'jam bands' per se. I like bands with great songs, and if they happen to throw some good jamming into the mix then that's great, but the jamming itself is almost never what draws me in to, say, the Allman Brothers or Jefferson Airplane.
I don't really get Phish. They sound like muzak to me - stoner muzak for college kids. It's not my thing at all.
The Dead are a completely distinct animal, though there are records you can play alongside live Dead music that go really well. Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac would be in this category for me, and maybe even two or three albums after Peter Green left the band. Then Play On, Fleetwood Mac's masterpiece from 1970, might just be the greatest guitar album ever made, though not in an ostentatious way. The playing is in fact quite understated when it needs to be. Their approach to music is similar in my mind to Richard Thompson. He is a phenomenal guitar player, but he doesn't feel like he has to beat you ever the head with it.
Sometimes it's what isn't played or what's left to the listener's imagination that counts just as much as what what is played. Don't mistake what I'm saying. There's furiously slashing interplay between Peter Green and Danny Kirwan throughout the Then Play On, but it's never showy, always just exactly right in setting the proper mood and vibe. I'm fascinated by Fleetwood Mac and want to say more about them
at some point when I get my **** together...
http://lalonelyone.blogspot.com/2010/10/fragments.html