Sitting In on the Night the Jammers Have Their Picnic April 28, 2005 - The New York Times By Kelefa Sanneh ''Buddy Guy learned every damn thing he know from the people who should have received this award before I did,'' said the night's feistiest winner, and the comment might have seemed impolite if the winner hadn't been Mr. Guy. At the fifth annual Jammy Awards, held Wednesday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Mr. Guy, the blues veteran, took home a Lifetime Achievement Award. And while it's safe to say he hadn't spent his whole life looking forward to the night when he would take the stage in a basement below Madison Square Garden and hoist aloft a funny-looking J-shaped guitarish figurine -- well, cheers to him for making it easy to suspend disbelief. The Jammy Awards ceremony exists to celebrate the world that was mainly created by the Grateful Dead: a world of rock-based improvisers, eager to extend their digressive songs by incorporating bits of country and jazz and the blues. The Grateful Dead's leader, Jerry Garcia, died a decade ago, but the group is still at the center of the jam-band universe: the Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh served as the evening's host, and Grateful Dead-related projects took home a handful of awards. The Dead, the name for the group's current incarnation, was awarded best download, for a recording of its performance at the 2004 Bonaroo festival. Accepting the award, Mr. Lesh said, ''It proves it's possible not only to survive but to prevail.'' The second-biggest name in all of jam-band-dom is Phish, which disbanded last summer. Accepting Phish's award for best tour, the bassist Mike Gordon still sounded disappointed about the split. ''It goes to prove my old theory that we probably had a few more decades left,'' he said. ''Deja Voodoo'' (ATO), by Gov't Mule, won the award for best studio album, and ''Stage'' (SCI-Fidelity), by the one-man-band Keller Williams, was honored as the year's best live album. But this was one awards show where presenters and winners and audience members alike all seemed cheerfully unconcerned about the winner and the losers. The main draw was the promise of unusual all-star jams, and that's precisely what attendees got, for better and for worse. The most intriguing name on the bill was that of Sinead O'Connor, the brilliant, unpredictable Irish singer and songwriter who is currently preparing to release an album of reggae covers. (She's even dressing the part: she showed up in a Marcus Garvey T-shirt and a red, yellow and green wrist band.) Unfortunately, Ms. O'Connor's performances offered only brief glimpses of what makes her best music so riveting. She meekly sang along with Mavis Staples, the jam band Umphrey's McGee and the 1980's star Huey Lewis (this ''all-star'' business can be tricky) during ''I'll Take You There.'' And she reappeared later to join the reggae pioneer Burning Spear for a reggae set that never ignited. After a miscue halfway through, Ms. O'Connor became the night's only performer to utter four particularly un-jam-ish words: ''O.K., let's start again.'' The night's most puzzling jam brought together the neo-cabaret singer Nellie McKay, the Roots drummer Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson and Mr. Wiliams; here's hoping these three never meet again. Mr. Guy's blues battle with John Mayer was more straightforward and more effective, and so was an imaginative collaboration between the Disco Biscuits and the country star Travis Tritt; they stretched out his song ''Honky Tonk History'' into a rippling, spaced-out jam. By far the night's most unexpected hero was Ryan Adams, the brash retro-rocker who is no one's idea of an ideal jam-band frontman. He had the daunting task of playing the Grateful Dead chestnut ''Wharf Rat'' with Mr. Lesh sitting in on bass, while an audience full of skeptical Deadheads looked on. But Mr. Adams made himself at home, and for a few minutes (more than a few), he did, stretching and rearranging the music to fit his style and mood. After a few twists and turns the crowd was dancing and Mr. Lesh was smiling, struggling to keep up, and it was easy to believe that he was having fun -- lost, once more, in his own music. Article Copyright © 2005 The New York Times