I believe the article in last month's issue by clay miller has renewed my faith in your e-zine. it has been a couple months since I popped in to check on your jam-band reviews. I had drifted away mainly because of (what seemed to be) an overly elitest view of the music and the scene. I think dave schools hit the nail on the head (somehow that guy always seems right on) when he said that they're not really a "jam-band".........

It's not about the length and orientation of the sets. It's not about the scene on the lots. It's not even about the times of year they are touring or about how easy it is to spin (literally and figuratively). What's important about these bands is the energy of the live music. it is the creative interplay between life and musician and dancer (or listener). With jerry gone, so many people will say "did you even see the grateful dead?"; and i wonder to myself if they ever experienced what the Grateful Dead was really about.......why is that people have this intense urge to compete, to feel superior in some way compared to the person next to them?

Yeah, i'm 18, so what? I am so sick of having people look down their noses at me, right over their pursed lips and frown lines. To a stranger on the lot I might look like some kid out for a buzz or story to tell her friends; to the people who know me I am family, I am ageless, and I am every bit as "into" the scene as they have been for ten or twenty years. everybody needs to get over the whole age thing on the lot.

There are plenty of sweet kids out there who belong at the shows, and there are plenty of middle-aged folks who turn out in limos just cuz it's saturday night.....

Thanks for standing up for the kids who are really older than their driver's license says.