I love Harris and he is a brave man for doing this. That said, if phish took a more interesting percussive angle ( can, silver apples, suicide) or used non-traditional or maybe eastern influences they way the Beatles did , their sound wouldn't be a mushy hash of Zappa and the allman brothers. Try bonzo dog band for humor! And don't get me started on the "it's cool" Phil Lesh school of singing. Im sure at any given jam band performance ( none of these bands are known for their vocal chops and there don't seem to be any women, hmm... (try cold blood or shocking blue)) any number of audience members could easily put Trey or any of the jokers who warble for these outfits to shame. I chalk it up to cynics who realized that because of the dead, they could be musically lazy and still be a draw. Once Jerry died many bands of this ilk lined up to be poor imitations of a band that actually did do something original.
Everytime Harris talks about jams I think about The justified ancients of mu-mu, and I'm sad he's not gonna play them instead.
