The acid test for a jam band is, of course, the live album, and San Francisco-based quartet
Tea Leaf Green bill this one as their first "official" concert recording, disavowing an earlier self-released effort. The disc is also billed as the soundtrack to an identically titled and simultaneously released documentary film on DVD directed by Justin Kreutzmann (son of
Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann). The movie captures the band's performance on May 19, 2006, at the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO, interspersed with interview footage shot back home in San Francisco. Many jam bands try to discount their roots in '60s psychedelic rock, but the members of
Tea Leaf Green are unabashed about extolling their taste for it and for the '70s classic rock that grew out of it. Their music is reminiscent of
the Dead, with certain caveats. They are one guitarist and one drummer short of the earlier band's instrumentation, which leads to greater prominence for keyboardist Trevor Garrod, and their rhythm section is more inclined toward R&B and funk than
the Dead's. Also, there is little of
the Dead's country music background in
Tea Leaf Green. But Garrod, who is also the lead singer, has a light tenor often reminiscent of
Jerry Garcia's, and the jamming, despite revealing a knowledge of both
the Allman Brothers Band and
Weather Report, suggests
the Dead, too. Garrod's lyrics are full of nature imagery and vague philosophizing, with a hint of religion (two songs here mention the Devil in the titles), his primary influence naturally being
the Dead's Robert Hunter. But the words are less important than the group's interplay on this date, and that interplay is infectious enough to please any jam band fan. [This DVD contains all the footage from the live performance.] ~ William Ruhlmann