The complaint is common: Rock radio in Atlanta bites. If it isn’t the nü-metal death throes of alternative rock it’s the dusty classic rock loop of Tom Petty into Foghat. Providing a welcome reprieve from both is live music show The Dunhams, which airs Sunday nights at 10 PM on Z-93 FM.

Jeff Dunham, music director for Z-93, and his wife Maria began doing the show in 1996. Though they're hardcore Deadheads, they avoided spinning old Grateful Dead tunes. Instead they invited eclectic, genre-jumping artists who had a tinge of the Dead’s spirit to perform live in their Dunwoody living room. Performers have included everyone from roots rockers Mudcat to newgrassers Leftover Salmon and jam band megastars moe., the band that headlines the Dunhams’ Jerry Jam concerts this Friday and Saturday at Masquerade Music Park. The results of the at-home performances were an army of tie-dyed, college-aged listeners and some pissed off neighbors. The Dunhams now broadcast their show in front of a live audience (an approach that has been rare in radio since the mid-`50’s) at Buckhead club the Brandyhouse.

Maria Dunham is impressed by the quality of Atlanta’s music scene. “We are so fortunate here. Jeff worked in radio and had dealings with bands in Maine, and they were by no means to the level of the stuff we've got going here. We have heavy stuff. No one knows, but we do.”

Jeff Dunham says searching for new musical frontiers is what its all about, “It's whoever you find that has their own spin on it that takes you out there.When they evolve a whole generation of counterculture people, as well, and create their own subculture, that's when you're going to get something that's beyond music, and that's what the Dead had.”