Umphrey's McGee

The ascension continues for Chicago’s Umphrey’s McGee, not only in terms of their commercial success but in creative accomplishment and instrumental achievement as well. Their performance on Live at the Murat (SCI Fidelity), the band’s first official live release, is as impressive as anything they’ve recorded to date, with the power and finesse, the yin and the yang, that have come to characterize their by-now classic material. Recorded in Indianapolis in April 2007 and produced by longtime “sound caresser”/honorary seventh member Kevin Browning, Live at the Murat is innovative without being indulgent and exhilarating without losing control. Clearly, logging 120 gigs a year, “live” is where UM lives.