Outside Inside (CD - 2001)

String Cheese Incident: Bill Nershi (acoustic guitar); Michael Kang (mandolin, violin); Kyle Hollingsworth (accordion, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, organ, synthesizer); Keith Moseley (bass); Michael Travis (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel includes: Karl Denson (saxophone); Andy Cleaves (trumpet).

Recorded at Two Coves, Austin, Texas and Studio X, Seattle, Washington.

Personnel: Bill Nershi (acoustic guitar); Michael Kang (mandolin, violin); Kyle Hollingsworth (accordion, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, organ, synthesizer); Karl Denson (saxophone); Andy Cleaves (trumpet); Keith Moseley (bass guitar); Michael Travis (drums, percussion).

Audio Mixer: Dave McNair.

Recording information: Studio X, Seattle, WA; Two Coves Studio, Austin, TX.

Photographer: Nick Havholm.

Arrangers: The String Cheese Incident; Bill Nershi.

Though you'd have to study the credits to realize it, the String Cheese Incident make credible jam-band rock without the benefit of an electric guitar. In place of that hallowed tool of rock, Michael Kang plays an electric mandolin that meshes agreeably with Bill Nershi's acoustic guitar. The combination enables the group to journey into groove-driven heaviness and friendly folk-rock with equal ease.

Though the String Cheese boys obviously possess plenty of chops, they don't place them on grandiose display in the manner of peers like Phish. Though they're as capable of tossing off staccato reggae-ish rhythms and riffs ("Search") as they are of assaying '70s-style funk ("Black and White) or adopting a Cuban feel (the appropriately titled "Latinissmo"), the String Cheese Incident never seem like they're trying to impress anyone. They're simply an able, eclectic lot whose all-American rock sound occasionally takes some interesting detours. minimize