Bonnaroo is now over. The town of Manchester is counting its money, the trash has been picked up, the tents taken down, and everyone awaits next year’s lineup for the festival that has, over four years, become a hippie utopia while simultaneously offering indie kids and hipsters some of the best bands touring in the same place at the same time. Yet, still something eludes us: complete harmony between the hippies and hipsters.

It’s not unusual to find a shirtless hippie with white boy dreads dancing riotously to Bright Eyes or Cat Power sets. And of course there are some bands that transcend both indie-rock and jam band rock, specifically My Morning Jacket. However, it’s not often you see one of the vintage black t-shirt wearing, angular haircut indie kids blogging about their love for Oysterhead’s 12 minute jam on “Grand Pecking Order.”

So in an attempt to bring the two groups together—to find a common ground if you will—I have painstakingly attempted to find some jam band songs that will hopefully inspire non-jammers to run for their iBooks.

Phish – Brian and Robert
Phish always vehemently deny that they are disciples of the Grateful Dead. But with Beach Boys harmonies, a sustaining guitar, and bouncing organ riff, this song (from the Andy Wallace produced The Story of the Ghost) sounds nothing like Grateful Dead. In fact, it’s nothing like what you’d expect Phish to sound like at all. For all the jam bands’ great musicianship, most critics gripe about their inability to write a well-structured song—that few groups have successfully translated their exciting concert experience to the studio. “Brian and Robert” (and the whole Ghost record) seems to be Phish’s response to that: they don’t need 15 minutes to show us they’re amazing musicians; they just need to pay tribute to Brian Eno and Robert Fripp’s “The Big Ship.”

Widespread Panic – Don’t Tell the Band
There’s a difference between Phish and Widespread Panic, the latter simply doesn’t have the musical chops of the former, so their jams often feel lazy, like they simply can’t finish the song or it has no structure. On the other hand, WSP’s songs are far more accessible than most Phish songs. And it’s for that same reason that their jams don’t work: their best songs are tight rockers with little room for solos. WSP has a likeable classic Southern Rock quality to them, especially on “Don’t Tell the Band,” the title track from their 2001 album. With the narrator singing about “General Bobby Lee” and the chorus, “don’t tell the band / The devil’s on his way,” backed by a gorgeous steel guitar, old-timey piano, and marching band drums, the song evokes none less than The Band.

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