Americana Jam
Summary
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Hosted on EVERY Tuesday of every month
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(except the random 5th Tuesday which is Open Mic Night)
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Make sure to download our RMJ Americana Song Book!
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ALL Acoustic instruments are welcome including percussion, cello, harmonica, etc. Electric bass is welcome.
Americana
What is Americana Music? Lets check wikipedia first..
Americana (also known as American roots music) is an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States of America, with particular emphasis on music historically developed in the American South.
To us at Roswell Music Jam, it is an Acoustic Jam that uses the Bluegrass style logistics. It has very few rules beyond that. It allow each participant, to call a song they want. Be it from Blues, Bluegrass, NewGrass, JamGrass, Folk, Folk-Rock, Blues-Rock, Alt-Rock, Old Country, Alt-Country, Outlaw Country, Roots, Old Time, Swing, Jazz, heck even New Country if you want. From time to time, the group has even throw in a Disco Tune just for kicks and giggles. This is the best of so many many worlds.
Electric Bass is welcome, but all other instruments need/should to be Acoustic. Cajon, Hand Percussion, etc and Melodica are welcome!
Genres are better thought of as Oceans and not boxes. Where the bump into each other is where beauty happens.
The group will focus on these songs at the start. This gives players a chance to practice ahead of time:
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"Hey Joe" by Hendrix (acoustic)
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"Paradise" by John Prine
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"The Weight" by The Band
Feel free to bring 10-15 copies of your song to hand out if slightly more complex chord changes. Originals are also welcome! But remember it must be a song structure folks can easily pick up on.
For those that don't know, there is ton of history of overlap between Jam Bands and Bluegrass. Both the Grateful Dead and Phish played bluegrass songs at their concerts. In fact, when Phish came to Atlanta in the 90s, they ask Cedar Hill to open for them! These songs may be slightly more complex, but jump in and learn them with the group.
On most nights, near the end of each meeting, the group plays "Drink Up and Go Home" by Garcia & Grisman so work on that one for sure! The chords are in the RMJ Americana Songbook.