Heather Keller, Steve Cahill, Maria Cahill & John Gannon

"Lately I've been laughing out loud during shows, just for pure joy," says Maria Cahill, the banjo-slinging frontwoman for the psychedelic folk quartet Ten Spiders. "I think anyone who's willing to listen to the music, we can win them over."

That's a big claim for a Philadelphia band whose newest member only joined a few months ago. But it says a lot about the keen vision that's kept the group's genre-busting mix of traditional and exploratory elements so fresh and innovative. Imagine a sound that's equal parts Phish and bluegrass master Bill Monroe. Then throw in some sly funk and the kind of smart Americana Tracy Chapman does so well. Swirl it around with a fearless sense of communal adventure and cut loose. Ten Spiders is in the house.

They call their sound "Americosmic Bluejam" and it's a very apt tag for something so indescribably unique. Over the last three and a half years, through extended tours and the recording of two well received CDs, Maria and her bassist husband Steve have perfected this style. And now, with John Gannon on drums and Steven Zulli on guitar, they can conjure this magic at will.

"It's becoming real," says Steve. And regardless of the venue, that's obvious whenever the band takes the stage. They can stretch out, allowing any number of styles to suddenly shimmer in their sonic fabric. They can charge through a tight set of straight ahead rockers. Or they can play a whole show of evocative country weepers. It's a flexibility, sharp and intuitive, that lets them connect with any audience.

"We have the freedom to judge who's there," Maria explains. "Are people sitting around? Do they want to dance? How can you decide what song you're going to play first before you get to the room?"

This liberating openness is simply an extension of the musicians' vast array of influences. Maria says her biggest inspirations were Rush and Joni Mitchell, two artists whose work can definitely be heard in Ten Spiders' sensitive yet structurally complex songwriting. She also grew up in a family of bluegrass players, however, and took lessons from Tony Trischka, an instrumental master who's a Rounder recording artist and whose other students include Bela Fleck. So there's some serious roots to even her most ambitious experiments.

Steve is no less eclectic, having started with the bass in a grade school folk group before graduating to bands that played Rush and Black Sabbath in high school and then the Grateful Dead in college. Gannon hails from a heavy jazz background and Zulli has played everything from punk to Crosby, Stills and Nash since he picked up the guitar at age 11.

Together, these musicians have a sound that might seem to fit best in the jam band scene. But even in that respect, Ten Spiders is unique. They are listed on jambase.com and they do play the occasional Dead cover -- as well as choice tunes by such fellow travelers as Neil Young. But in a guitar driven, male dominated genre, a group whose focal point is a woman with a banjo is bound to attract attention.

"We've faced the male factor," laughs Steve. "But we pick up the people who listen to music for the music. Our fans think for themselves."

Ultimately, Maria considers the whole jam band movement "a genuine revolution."

"It's music in the hands of the people," she says. "It's like the new folk music. It's one of the few popular genres that's still growing and moving forward and could be anything. Which is really cool."

And as for the name? "My brother-in-law used to work at a nature center," says Steve. "So he has all these little factoids like 'Pound for pound, grasshoppers have more protein than beef.' And once he said, 'Over an average lifetime, you eat ten spiders in your sleep.' We've actually gotten an email from some guy saying that it's all an Internet hoax. But nobody's proved that. It sounds reasonable. And there's a lot of spiders."

Perhaps the truth, like the music of this band, lies somewhere between the absolutes. At the very least, it's worth exploring. For as the Americosmic Bluejam of Ten Spiders proves, anything is possible.