There is a new trend in the music industry today, bands which have been broken up for decades reforming suddenly in order to cash in on the pocketbooks and prosperity of their baby-boomer generation fans.

For a weekday during spring break, the North Star Bar in Philadelphia was vacant, but the musicians came to play anyway.  Starting with the opening band, a new local jam band named Mogel's Brew, all of the musicians played with emotion and soul. It was really nice to see and hear a band that I would classify as a young jam band.

The North Mississippi Allstars decided to play a very unique acoustic tour. It wasn't the usual Mississippi foot stomping rockin' blues, but a mellow country blues that told a story and a history about a time and place much different from here and now. I saw the March 23rd show at the World Café Live in Philadelphia.

Kyle Hollingsworth  (The String Cheese Incident) steps out with his latest collaboration – soleside – which features Kyle, Speech (of Arrested Development) and DJ Logic. Backed by a full band, these three creative souls, seemingly worlds apart, will smash jazz/funk, hiphop and turntables into an explosive new music that defies categorization.

Normally I am a little skeptical of artists who release albums that are dubbed "B-sides" or "leftover recording material", because it usually is a feeble attempt to cash in on material that truly is b-grade.  However, this is not the case with the release of Umphreys McGee's The Bottom Half, which happens to boast some beautifully written and energetically recorded tracks from the Chicago-based rock outfit.

Today, independent music pioneers The String Cheese Incident announce their 2007 Summer Tour – which also marks the beginning of an end for the band and their community.  In the fall of 2006, The String Cheese Incident announced it would make no plans beyond summer 2007, as SCI guitarist Billy Nershi would be leaving the group to explore a different musical path.