Just Like in the Old Country

Of the groove-oriented jam bands, Ten Ton Chicken is fairly tolerable. Their debut album, Just Like in the Old Country, is filled with the usual genre crossings -- usually involving some combination of jazz, funk, and prog rock (though there are some refreshing bursts of klezmer on the album-closing "Loushka"). Mostly, though, they just groove, and do so in a fairly laid-back style that doesn't belie their Northern California roots. In fact, somewhat uniquely, elements of the band's music and jamming (such as on "Azerbuh") seem to draw a direct line from the Grateful Dead's sunny grooves to the newer wave of funk-driven jam bands such as Galactic. The band manages to pace themselves quite well through Old Country and there is enough sonic depth provided by the variety of instruments (keyboards, saxophone, etc.) to keep things interesting across eight tracks plus freaky bonus noise.