Andy Farag

Umphrey's McGee, sometimes stylized as UM, is an American jam band originally from South Bend, Indiana.

The band experiments with many musical styles, including rock, metal, funk, jazz, blues, reggae, electronic, bluegrass, country, and folk.

They have toured regularly and released several albums.

Formed by students at the University of Notre Dame in December 1997, members were guitarist/vocalist Brendan Bayliss, Johnzo West, Jeff Topp, bassist Ryan Stasik, keyboardist Joel Cummins, and drummer Mike Mirro.

Umphrey's McGee combined members of Tashi Station and Stomper Bob, two Notre Dame rock bands.

Early concerts consisted of both originals and cover songs, including Guns N' Roses' "Patience" and Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts theme "Linus and Lucy," as well as songs by Phish, moe., and Grateful Dead.

According to Cummins, "The origins [of the name] are of an actual person. Brendan Bayliss, our other lead singer and guitar player has a cousin ... and his name is actually Humphrey Magee but it's not possessive with the apostrophe s ..."

In mid-1998, after 8 months together, the band released their debut album, Greatest Hits Vol. III. Having a released studio disc allowed them to more readily book live performances.

Although long out of print, the album contains songs that remain staples of Umphrey's live sets, such as "Divisions", "Phil's Farm", "FF", and "All in Time".

Shortly after the release of the album, the band added a fifth member, percussionist Andy Farag.

Farag's father became the band's agent.

A second pressing of Greatest Hits Vol. III featured Farag in the album's inner sleeve and credits.

By the end of the year, Umphrey's McGee, along with peers Ali Baba's Tahini, were one of the most popular bands in the South Bend/Notre Dame area.

They began performing outside the area at colleges and house parties, allowing listeners to tape and trade their music freely.

In 1998, the band released their first live album, Songs for Older Women.

Guitarist Jake Cinninger was added to the band in September 2000.

Cinninger deepened the Umphrey's sound, and also contributed a large repertoire of original music, much of which comprised the bulk of the catalog from his previous band, Ali Baba's Tahini.

The band also adopted several songs written by Karl Engelmann, Ali Baba's Tahini frontman.

(He now fronts Asheville, North Carolina-based rock band Mother Vinegar).

Shortly after Cinninger's arrival, the band released another live album, One Fat Sucka, which contained live performances recorded in the summer and fall of 2000.

In 2001, the band began practicing intense improvisational exercises.

One of their first productive sessions took place in the "Jimmy Stewart Ballroom" of a hotel, prompting the band to call their onstage improvisational excursions "Jimmy Stewarts".

This form of improvisation differs in approach from the methods used by many of their jam band peers.

Jake Cinninger and Joel Cummins released solo albums in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

At least two songs from each of those albums are part of Umphrey's concert repertoire.

Since year 2002, they were the headlining act and organizers of Summer Camp Music Festival, which was held annually in Three Sister’s Park in Chillicothe, Illinois.

In June 2002 the band released its first proper recording, Local Band Does OK.

That summer, they played at the first annual Bonnaroo Music Festival in rural Manchester, Tennessee, among over 30 bands performing in front of nearly 100,000 people.

Other artists included Widespread Panic, Trey Anastasio, and Norah Jones.

The band almost broke up in late 2002 when drummer Mike Mirro announced he was leaving the band to attend medical school.

After hundreds of audition tapes were reviewed by the percussionist Andy Farag, the band settled on the first one they had received, which was from Kick the Cat drummer Kris Myers.

2003 was a year of change for UM.

New drummer Kris Myers had to learn their extensive repertoire of originals and covers.

The band continued their grueling tour schedule, logging over 150 shows for the year.

The band began experimenting with a new "Lego" style of songwriting, which involved piecing together original sections and lifted pieces of "Jimmy Stewart" improvisations to create new songs, such as "Ocean Billy", "#5", and "Wife Soup".

That summer, UM entered the recording studio in Chicago for their first studio album with Myers.

Later that year, the UM Live program was started by "Sound Caresser" Kevin Browning.

Each night's show would be offered on CD, for sale directly after the show.

This soon translated into a partnership with Disc Logic for online distribution, and a few years later all of the band's shows would be moved to UMLive.net.

In November, the band released their first DVD, Live from the Lake Coast, and later that month their first official release featuring Kris Myers, Local Band Does Oklahoma (Recorded on April 23 in Oklahoma City).