Decades in the making, jam band brings back ‘hippie music’

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

Who: Moonalice

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Four Queens' Canyon Club

Tickets: $20-$25; 385-4011

Information: www.moonaliceband.com

One of the newest jam bands in the country is made up of some of the oldest musicians, artists in their 50s and 60s who made names for themselves in the recording industry over the past four decades.

Moonalice, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, recently launched its debut national tour and makes its premier in Las Vegas on Friday at the Four Queens' Canyon Club .

"We're a brand-new band of people that have been around forever," Roger McNamee said. "We play good , old - fashioned hippie music.

"We're a group of old friends who decided to start a band to play brand-new '60s music. Old guys playing new music that sounds old."

McNamee was one of the founders of the Flying Other Brothers, a Bay Area jam band formed about 10 years ago.

In addition to McNamee (bass, guitar and vocals) and his wife, Anne, (bass, percussion, vocals) the lineup includes:

"There are a lot of ways to think about it," McNamee said. "G.E. Smith is a good , old-fashioned hard-driving rock 'n' roller. Barry Sless is one of the truly great Jerry Garcia disciples. Barry plays a San Francisco sound. G.E. plays with a New York, an East Coast sound. As a consequence , the band does both East and West Coast '60s sounds very well. "

He says he was motivated to start the group because of the changes in the industry.

"The music business is a disaster these days," McNamee said. "There are two groups - the top 50 acts playing in arenas, and then everybody else. So we're just going to do something really fun for us and fun for the audience."

The first album by the fledgling group of old-timers will be ready in the spring. It's being produced by T. Bone Burnett, music producer for films hits such as "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou," "Walk the Line" and the upcoming Beatles film "Across the Universe."

"If you want to listen to our music now we don't have a CD," McNamee said. "If you want to hear the music, you have to go to our Web site (moonaliceband.com) and download it for free."

He doesn't mind the free downloads.

"In the digital age there's no point in playing hard to get," he said. "Our strategy is to the put the music in our fans ' hands and trust them to spread the word. We'll make our money playing live. If somebody wants to buy T-shirts while we're playing live, so much the better."

Moonalice has performed about 20 concerts since it was created this year.

The show opens with four songs that give everyone a chance to play bass.

"It's an amazing sight gag," McNamee said.

Casady ends up being the dominant bass player for the evening.

It's mostly new stuff.

"You're not going to hear 'White Rabbit,' " McNamee said. "We want to play new music. We will do some covers, but you'll barely recognize them, because we play them very differently from the way they were written. For example, we cover 'Jumping Jack Flash' at half the speed that the Rolling Stones did it. We do it with an Al Green feel to it."

McNamee says they may play three versions of the same song, but they sound like three different songs.

"We've been at it two months and it's been spectacular, so far," McNamee said. "It's designed not to be pretentious. This is all about music and fun."

Casady, who tours with Hot Tuna for about three months each year, may have unwittingly played a part in the creation of Moonalice.

"I did a recording project with Anne McNamee and G.E. Smith," Casady said. "It went so well that after it was over I said to Roger, 'This sounds great. I've got a break coming up from Hot Tuna. If you got some gigs it would be great to play with you guys.'"

The rest may be music history.