Saturday Stream | Instrumental Umphreys McGee

Issued last Tuesday, Umphrey’s McGee’s latest studio album, The London Session, included two instrumental originals that have been in their live repertoire for some time: “Eat” and “Glory.” Dating back to their debut studio album, 1998’s Greatest Hits Volume III, each of UM’s studio LPs included at least one instrumental track prior to breaking that streak with 2014’s Similar Skin. The first playlist below —Instrumental Studio UM –includes every lyric-less track recorded in the studio by Umphrey’s (sans Greatest Hits which isn’t available for streaming). The 17 entries include two demos of songs that typically feature vocals, “Higgins” and “Words” from 2007’s The Bottom Half, and are presented in chronological order from earliest recording through “Glory.” 


UM has also issued an abundance of official live releases over the past decade and a half, regularly showcasing their prowess as musicians on one of their many all instrumental compositions. A second helping of Umphrey’s —Instrumental Live UM –is another chronological lyric-less playlist composed of 25 tracks from the band’s official live releases. The 24 originals and improvisations as well as one lone cover — Weather Report’s “River People” –clock in at just under three and half hours and include appearances by Joshua Redman (on “River People” and a few UM originals) and Ivan Neville. There are slight exceptions on both playlists –Atmosfarag above has sampled vocals and Professor Wormbog below adds the “Mowtownphilly” “zoom zoom zoom” scatting. Between the two playlists there are over four hours of instrumental UM for your listening pleasure.




Umphrey’s McGee plays the second of two nights at the Saint Augustine Amphitheatre, in Saint Augustine, Florida tonight, again sharing the stage with Lettuce.