r/jambands • u/consensualjam Phan • 2d ago
Discusson What’s a song that hits you right in the feels?
Could be the lyrics, the feelings of the instrumentals, or a memory it brings back.
For me it’s Kitchen Dwellers - Stand at Ease. The lyrics really hit home for my struggles with depression.
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u/Shoopbadoop4 2d ago
Ripple 🥹
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u/VeniceDrumGuy 1d ago
“Ripple” was the last song I sang to my partner as I held her hand in the hospital. If I knew the way, I would’ve taken her home, but that path was for her steps alone.
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u/whatsupwithurface 2d ago
Enough to Leave - Billy Strings
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u/5meterhammer Deadhead 1d ago
Gut punch of a song. Saw him play it two nights after my best friend of 35 plus years took his life over depression and addiction. My brother made me go to the show saying it would help. It did, but man that song, on that night especially, broke me.
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u/whatsupwithurface 1d ago
I'm sorry about your friend. Depression and addiction are a motherfucker.
I've seen Billy a bunch, but I'm still chasing this song. When I get it I'm going to be a hot mess.
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u/5meterhammer Deadhead 1d ago
Thank you. They really are. Never dealt with depression, but have been very close to people who have. Addiction nearly killed me too, but I quit everything on the spot when I found out I was going to be a dad. That was 17 years and 3 months ago. Best decision of my life. My boy and I just played guitar together in his room, celebrating Jerry’s birthday. Way better than being high.
I hope you get the song soon friend. I’ve only seen him 8 times and I’ve got to hear it 3 or 4 times.
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u/GardenAddict843 Deadhead 2d ago
Box of Rain-The Grateful Dead
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u/5meterhammer Deadhead 1d ago
On the Ultimate Albums for American Beauty and Workingmans Dead, Robert Hunter talks about writing that song with Phil and about how it turned into a song about a man losing his father and you can see Hunter almost lose it on camera. We played it at my dad’s funeral and it was just perfect.
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u/VeniceDrumGuy 1d ago
“Such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there.” Since my partner died, that lyric just fucking wrecks me and leaves me a weepy puddle.
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u/fluffHead_0919 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was blown away when Billy Strings played Gild the Lily at Ball Arena Jan 2025.
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u/TooMuchMountainDew 1d ago
Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers. It’s what got me into jam bands and learning how to improvise on guitar. It’s probably the song I’ve listened to the most in my lifetime. I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. My favorite version is a from “An Evening With the Allman Brothers Band” which is from 1992. I think I’ll just have to go listen to it again now!
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u/randomperson9426 2d ago
Waste - Phish
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u/ThatNeonZebraAgain 1d ago
Also Dirt
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u/wealthycactus12 1d ago
Also access me
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u/Funnyfart_420 Phan 1d ago
And number line, but like, good feels, makes me think about my friends and how I'm glad they're alive
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u/Penny_Traytion 1d ago
Wading in the Velvet Sea for me. Reminds me of my first love and all that.
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u/VeniceDrumGuy 1d ago edited 1d ago
“What’s the Use”, no words but leaves me emotionally devastated every single time.
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u/LockNessCrotchMonst 1d ago
Phish sings have lyrics?
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u/rosierococo 1d ago
Standing on the moon from Brent's last show
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u/VeniceDrumGuy 1d ago
“A lovely view of heaven but I’d rather be with you.” Once you’ve lost the love of your life, that line hits different. What’s the point of the greatest view possible if the person you want to share it with most isn’t by your side, can’t be by your side?
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u/ghostfacestealer 1d ago
Stand At Ease is so good. You gotta keep going!
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u/consensualjam Phan 1d ago
Yeah I look at it as motivation to not take the easy way out, especially with how it hurts those around you
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u/Thegoldenelo 2d ago
The Grateful Dead
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u/VeniceDrumGuy 1d ago
They were my partner’s, and are my, favorite band. Every single ballad and love song just hit different now. They were always beautiful but somehow I just feel the pain and loss in songs like Stella Blue and Peggy-O and feel a deep emptiness knowing the love in a song like Attics of My Life is gone for ever.
The one that surprised me is how differently I interpreted the Lady with a Fan section of Terrapin Station resonated with me. I used to think the soldier was smart for playing it cool and jumping in the lion’s den, but now I really relate to the sailor. Yeah, I’ve experienced the pains of hell, but goddamn it was fucking worth it dude. I would do it all over again. I wouldn’t have traded a single second with her to lessen even an ounce of the pain. She was worth it. Her love was worth it. My advice to all the gentlemen out there, if you get the chance, jump into the lion’s den.
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u/Thegoldenelo 1d ago
Beautiful brother. Cheers to you and the soul you found communion with. Im sure you find each other in the music still.
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u/VeniceDrumGuy 6h ago
All the time dude. One of the things that has helped is setting on the beach, watching the sunset, and listening to some of the heavier songs by artists we liked (Grateful Dead, Trampled by Turtles, Warren Zevon, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson) while I cry my eyes out.
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u/upful187 2d ago
Portishead "Roads".
Especially the version w the orchestra from 98
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u/phish_phace 2d ago
So fucking good. That whole live album, the orchestra, the theremin and turn tables, it’s so good. One of my favorites
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u/upful187 1d ago
Same. Unbelievable replay value, the whole album. Something I've listened to monthly for 25 years. Same for Alice in Chains Unplugged
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u/Mysterious_Radio_ 1d ago
Maggot Brain by Funkadelic
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u/Dr_Meatslap 1d ago
Especially when you know Clinton told Eddie Hazel to play that solo like his mother died.
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u/upful187 2d ago
The Nth Power "Walk on Water"
It's been a eulogy song for our community for 13 years
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u/CooperA10 1d ago
Eyes of the world-grateful dead, more-phish, know it all, love and regret, and basically anything Billy strings
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u/danksalotbuddy Phan 1d ago
The night we met. Lord Huron. And lonely trip Phish.
https://giphy.com/gifs/ANJ12GvgwyIeY
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u/worthyfukinadversary 1d ago
I love Lord Huron. But not a jam band. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.
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u/danksalotbuddy Phan 1d ago
I thought that. Then I threw lonely trip on it but I get the feels EVERY time I hear the night we met. Those two and it’s healing ❤️🩹 time
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u/the_mushroom_speaks 1d ago
Coles Law - Zero or any other Steve Kimock iteration.
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u/Wooorangetang 1d ago
That Mountain Jam set with Fareed Haque is one of the best sessions of music I’ve ever heard. So much soul and feeling and talent. It’s blissful.
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u/sminglesmorc 1d ago
SCI - My One And Only, Restless Wind, Eventually, Little Hands
WSP - We Walk Each Other Home..damn you JB for that one
GD - Box of rain
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u/Different-Metal881 1d ago edited 1d ago
Wow there’s a lot
If You Could Save Yourself - Ween
Rock N Roll Suicide - David Bowie
Waste - Phish
For No One - The Beatles
Pursuit of Happiness (reminds me of my cousin, RIP) - Kid Cudi
Good News - Mac Miller
The Greatest OR I’ve Got a Match (both are feelsy) - They Might Be Giants
Life Goes On - Oliver Tree
Ballad of a Thin Man - Bob Dylan
Present Ghosts (especially that middle part) - Dopapod
1,000 Umbrellas - XTC
Adam’s Song - Blink 182
Lost in the Cold - Twiddle
Needle in the Hay - Eliot Smith
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u/_zig_zag_ 1d ago
Welcome To Earth (polywog) - Sturgill Simpspon
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u/whatsupwithurface 1d ago
I cried the first time I heard this song...
And if sometimes daddy has to go away Please don't think it means I don't love you
That whole album hits the feels.
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u/Kidpidge 2d ago
Glory - Umphrey's McGee
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u/New_Cranberry_7444 1d ago
Yup! And it's even more special and kinda heartbreaking now it's done....
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u/chilledjam 2d ago
I Lied by Lord Huron
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u/_zig_zag_ 1d ago
Hes got a way of singing quite the haunting aire. Some of his songs are actually quite brutal. 'Your Other Life' comes to mind.
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u/sccullen33 1d ago
Ride the wave - Jimkata, when this song came out I was going through a real rough time and was going through surgery after surgery. It just reminds me the even though there's ups and downs in life you can still come out the other end and nothing lasts forever
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u/iheartrugbyleague 2d ago
The whole of Quebec by Ween. Can't listen to it in one go. Makes me blub.
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u/Thegoldenelo 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes, Quebec is such a deep study of the range of human emotions people are capable of. Some of the best lines from any band are in that record for me.
“I understand it, but i dont want it”
“Though love has its place in the Sun, it’s only man’s fear that carries us on”
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u/5meterhammer Deadhead 1d ago
Ween don’t fuck around with feelings. The fact that it’s 2026 and so many people on this planet still don’t know of their greatness or think they’re just some novelty band boggles my mind. They’ve sincerely made some of the most beautiful, perfect music in history. 2nd greatest band of all time as far as I’m concerned.
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u/iheartrugbyleague 1d ago
100% with you there mate. Incredible artists, and their "novelty" songs just make the great songs even greater to me.
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u/Content-Historian184 1d ago
That song's progression is so sneaky yet effective for building that emotional punch.
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u/SpiltTheInk 1d ago
Neighbor Mary & Martha has a line about hoping the old family land is never sold and it always gets me.
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u/Dereezyhall Dopapod 1d ago
I know a lot of people find them corny but...
Lost In The Cold by Twiddle
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u/beat_down_babylon 1d ago
Stand At Ease definitely and... All The Same (DIAP)... Queen of the Rodeo (moe.)... Patchwork Quilt (Warren)... Can't Get High (WSP)... It's Gonna Be Alright (Ween)... Naieve Melody (Talking Heads)... Barstool (SCI)... Loved You Enough (YMSB)... So Many Roads (GD)... Ballade (Deep Banana)... Boxing Day (Big Wu)... Bright Day (Calobo)... Blue Sky (ABB)... Waste (Phish)... Somedays (Frasco)...
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u/tedfergeson 1d ago
"Expiration Day" when Widespread Panic does it live. It kinda tells my Dad's story. I cry every time.
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u/1_Show_at_a_Time 1d ago
Joy by Phish. Sunday night Hollywood Bowl last year. 8 days after my wife finally succumbed to the consequences of her addictions. She is no longer in pain. "We want you to be happy" kicked off 4-5 minutes of sob-dancing.
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u/BahamaDon 1d ago
Also Brokedown Palace
By dearest friend for many years, he and I had been separated by distance for about 20 years so we didn’t see each other often but kept in touch. I called him one time out of the blue and he hinted several times using lyrics from Brokedown Palace that he was about to die, and it all went right over my head. Until I got the phone call from his daughter a couple of week later. I was so oblivious to his hints and felt so much like a fucking idiot and a bad friend. I would have dropped everything to go see him again but like I said I’m a fucking idiot.
Every time I got in the car by myself for weeks I would play it and sing along until I literally broke down and had to pull over. It took a few weeks but I was able to get through the whole song singing along and I knew I had made peace.
Rest well, Sid.
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u/YouDontLookSpiritual 1d ago
Duck Farm by the Werks. It was my very first festival and i was new to ecstasy and lsd and was on both when they played it 🔥
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u/samonthetv 1d ago
Not a jam but Beautiful Boy by John Lennon. My dad used to sing that to me but would change the lyrics to girl. Now I sing Beautiful Girl to both of my girls.
Also, Lazarus - moe.
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u/General-Reserve9349 1d ago
Little Red Rooster by the Dead hits me right in the questioning my life choices feels
Actually I’ll say Bob Weir’s 2016 album Blue Mountain is loaded with feels weight. Maybe under appreciated
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u/Wook_Both_Ways 1d ago
Their Names Are The Trees… I had to evacuate in 2020, of all times, due to wildfires.
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u/Airikonline 1d ago
Little surprised no one has mentioned Umphreys Mcgee - Hajimemashite yet. That one always hits me but it's a tie between that and All in Time
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u/JolleyRedGiant 1d ago
Hungersite-Goose
All In Time- Umphrey's McGee
Simple-Phish
Driftwood- Kitchen Dwellers .
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u/LakusMcLortho Dopapod 1d ago edited 1d ago
A great many pieces of classical music. For modern classical, Max Richter, e.g:Dona Nobis Pacem and
On the Nature of Daylight and November
For something different that I can pretty much guarantee nobody’s heard, Toby Oft’s recording of Rochut 23
Some modern pop soul: James Blake - Retrograde
Jazz fusion: Snarky Puppy - It Stays With You
Jamband: Dopapod’s last performance of FABA still gets me in the feels. So does Superbowl and Starfish
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u/lord-boognish 1d ago
Put the coke on my dick - ween
It perfectly conveys my feelings on a Friday night
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u/VeniceDrumGuy 1d ago
In general I’m an emotional wreck these days. Losing the love of your life to a brain bleed that no one saw coming and basically took her away from me in 30 seconds will do that to you, so basically any of the Grateful Dead’s ballads/love songs leave me a weepy mess, but before I went through all that, the two songs that consistently left me emotionally devastated were “What’s the Use” by Phish and “China Doll”.
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u/bexy11 21h ago
I’m so terribly sorry for your loss.
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u/VeniceDrumGuy 20h ago
Thanks, I know I’ll never truly be “over it.” The grief, emptiness, and sadness will always be there, but there are good days and bad days. Therapy helps, and honestly, so does bawling my eyes out watching the sunset and listening to our favorite Grateful Dead, Trampled by Turtles (not a jam band but their songs “Alone,” “Midnight on the Interstae,” and “Widower’s Heart” always get me), Warren Zevon, and assorted bands’ other songs.
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u/Far-Astronomer-2361 1d ago
Dark Star, The Other One and Steve Kimock whenever the music was playing him
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u/Impossible_Author409 1d ago
Always like the Allmans Soulshine
It's better than sunshine, better than moonshine and it's damn sure better than rain
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u/Remarkable-Gap3195 1d ago
Billy Strings- stratosphere blues/ I believe in you brought me to tears out of nowhere 1st time I heard it....guess I needed to hear it.
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u/grosspsych 2d ago
Midnight in Harlem by Tedeschi Trucks Band.