"good times around the bend" by string cheese incident

This is a great feel-good song. It's very upbeat, and has a kind of progressive bluegrass feel to it with some sweet harmonies. It makes you feel like you're on a train, because it has a chugga chugga chugga feel to it (that's the only way i can describe it...) It starts off with a measure of introduction by the banjo, and then the bass, violin, and drums (using brush sticks) come in. The bassline is on the upbeats, and kind of help create that bluegrass feeling. I love how the violing is used in this song, because it's kind of suprising and does a great job of initiating the main melody first. There is one main male vocalist, and then another one kind of backs him up on the last half of each of the lines of verses. Then they both sing on the chorus, with the backup guy singing mostly a perfect 4th down, which sounds pretty cool. The vocalists are backed up by the instruments and sing the verse or chorus (i like the lyrics a lot), and then one either the banjo or violin improvises on the melody.

There's a half cadence 4 measures into the song, and then the rest of the phrase has 5 measures, ending on a PAC. This is a continuous pattern throughout the song. The asymmetry in it makes the extra measure in it makes it a little more unique and makes it seem like something's going to happen, making the listener sort of wonder when the vocals are going to start. It does a good job of the music imitating the lyrics. Like in the chorus, the words "sometimes it seems like such a hard life," all of the instruments create a downwards progression with the violin wailing, and then immediately creates an upwards progression on the words "But there's good times around the bend."