If you followed any of the countless jam bands that dotted the American musical landscape in 2015, it’s likely you ran into Tom Hamilton at some point last year.  As the guitarist and vocalist for four touring bands: American Babies, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Billy and the Kids, and

Before I saw Joe Russo’s Almost Dead for the first time Monday night, I totally misunderstood the band’s titular pun. I can’t help but laugh at my sheer stupidity, but I thought it was a combination of  “Hey, we’re a Grateful Dead cover band” and “When our drummer parties, we have 911 on speed dial”. But just 15 minutes into Joe Russo’s Almost Dead's first set at the Boulder Theater, it dawned on me.

Railroad Earth bassist Andrew Altman spent some time in the studio with Tom Hamilton (American Babies, JRAD, Phil Lesh) last year and the resulting five song EP is now available in most online outlets. Andrew has contributed a couple songs to the RRE catalog in the past but this is his first collection of all original material with Tom Hamilton handling production duties and performing on the record as well. 

Recently, the music world has been teeming with musicians who have stepped up to either replace or support bands that they are not necessarily permanent members of, yet. My last three reviews (Yonder Mountain String Band, STS9, Electron) have detailed surprise replacements/additions who have extremely floored die-hard audiences of the original lineups.