Join us at 7 PM on August 4, 2025 in Gas Hill Drinking Room for a conversation and book signing with Mike Ayers, author of SHARING IN THE GROOVE: The Untold Story of the ‘90s Jam Band Explosion and the Scene That Followed! Presented in partnership with Bookmarks.
In SHARING IN THE GROOVE: The Untold Story of the ‘90s Jam Band Explosion and the Scene That Followed (St. Martin’s Press; July 22, 2025, $31.00 Hardcover) music and culture journalist Mike Ayers details the unlikely rise of Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler, and numerous other bands that helped define the 1990s jam band scene.
As an oral history, a wide range of characters pass through the pages of SHARING IN THE GROOVE. The book contains interviews with over 150 people and is filled with anecdotes and stories directly from musicians – including exclusive insights from Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler, Medeski Martin and Wood, Spin Doctors, moe. and many more - promoters, managers, roadies, producers, label executives, and fans.
The 1990s jam band scene paved the way for modern-day cultural institutions like the Bonnaroo Music Festival as well as kept the Grateful Dead ethos alive. It was also a scene with its own values and its own unique interactions with fame, record labels, MTV, drugs, and success. SHARING IN THE GROOVE details the DIY rise and unlikely success of the '90s jam bands, many of which are still actively touring and playing arenas and amphitheaters — and inspiring a new generation of artists doing the same.
Not only a veteran music journalist, Ayers has firsthand experience of the scene. He has been to more than 130 Phish shows, 20 Grateful Dead shows, and countless others by the bands profiled in SHARING IN THE GROOVE. In the mid-90s, he stumbled upon a job working backstage for Phish as a prep cook in exchange for all-access passes for the night’s show, and ended up doing this for years. Later in the decade, Ayers dabbled in the taping scene and recorded numerous shows that are still circulated online today.
MIKE AYERS is a seasoned music and culture journalist, with work published in Billboard, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, TIME Magazine, Reuters, Uproxx, and Relix. His first book, One Last Song: Conversations on Life, Death and Music, was published in 2020 and picked as one of Variety's Best Music Books of the year.
“As someone who came of age on the generational outskirts of the '90s jam scene, I couldn’t have been more fascinated by this book. It brought me into the sweaty clubs of NYC and tour vans everywhere, from Boulder to Burlington, that I could only imagine as a teenager, feverishly listening to every bootleg I could get my hands on. I’ve always been a proud fan of jam bands and this great oral history has only deepened my love and understanding for the people and times that helped shape what that musical world could and should be.”
― Chris Tomson, Vampire Weekend & Taper's Choice
“The jam band world is a bit like Fight Club ― it's something we all know exists, but are not supposed to talk about. That is, until now. Mike Ayers has done the work of shining some light on a woefully under-covered corner of modern music. In the process, he finds the kinds of stories that even the most ardent tape collectors haven't heard before.”
― Steven Hyden, author of There Was Nothing You Could Do, Long Road, and This Isn't Happening
“Mike Ayers has documented the history of the jam band scene in a definitive way, directly from the voices of the musicians who created this scene (and the promoters, managers, and everyone else who was there when it was birthed). It’s amazing to hear how it all came together for the bands that still power the most vibrant music scene in America today.”
― Pete Shapiro, owner of Brooklyn Bowl, The Capitol Theatre and
promoter of Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead
“In the early '90s, as the New York music industry desperately scoured the nation for the next big thing, an organic music scene was taking shape right under their noses. Little clubs were packed with fans and bands jamming the night away, as jam bands took root and sprouted like mushrooms. This book captures that exciting fluid time with a deep dive into the bands that blew up out of this scene and the ones that coulda been a contender.”
― Alan Paul New York Times bestselling author of One Way Out and Brothers and Sisters
“God bless Mike Ayers for giving the vibrant, raucous, bizarre, wildly lovable, and absolutely ungovernable ‘90s jam band scene the love and devotion it deserves, from coast to coast, from the mushrooms to the hippie communes to the firearms to the shock hit singles to the spectacular flameouts to the beavers, all of it straight from the mouths of the goofballs and tyrants and jokers and geniuses who lived it. Get ready to have 10 new favorite bands.”
― Rob Harvilla, Host and author of 60 Songs That Explain the '90s
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