Rusted Root: Back and Bold
The breakup was a bust
Rusted Root is back in action and bolder than ever
By MaryAlice Bitts
SUNDAYNEWS
April 21, 2002
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Rusted Root, the band that disbanded in 1998 when their
founder, lead singer-guitarist Michael Glabici, went solo, is back.
And no one is less surprised than its drummer-percussionist, Jim Donovan. "In my
mind, it was just a hiatus. We never sold the company equipment. We still
maintained the storage space, things like that. It was kind of like putting the
whole machine on idle. We didn't shut it off.
"It's just like a marriage -- with all of the good stuff and all of the bad
stuff. Now we're back on the good stuff."
The good stuff is manifest in "Welcome to My Party," their fourth and most
lavishly produced CD to date, which they are now promoting on a tour that brings
them to Elizabethtown College Friday.
The album released April 9 is characteristically multicultural, featuring eight
diverse songs touching on reggae, rock, soul, folk, funk, African, Latin and --
on one track -- even techno tones.
"Working in this band, the one thing we knew was that we didn't want to put any
boundaries on what sound we had or what things we used and, as a result, we make
this music that sounds like nobody else. And it's really fun to work that way,
not to have to be any one certain thing," Donovan said.
"When you're working from a place where you're trying to get magic to appear,
when you're playing or working on a track, you're kind of giving yourself up to
a spur of the moment, and that's nothing that you can have a plan for. It's
something that you can't really control.
"I think that when you are authentic about it... you can connect to people's
hearts. People want to feel something. They want something that makes them feel,
that makes them dance.
"Whether it makes them cry, or dance with joy, or whatever that connection, that
emotion -- it appeals to everybody."
You might say that the Pittsburgh sextet noted for hits such as "Send Me On My
Way"(recently revived on the soundtrack of Disney's "Ice Age") and its
engergizing live performances as opening band for the likes of the Dave Matthews
Band and Sting, was reborn.
Their reunion is the indirect result of Donovan and his wife having a baby at a
midwife center in Pittsburgh. Several months later, the financially pressed
center called and asked if Rusted Root could perform a benefit.
"I said, "Well, we're not really together. But you bent over backwards for us;
I'll ask and see what happens," Donovan recalled.
He called. And "everyone was really willing, because it was for a really good
cause."
THAT'S NOT SURPRISING. Rusted Root has a history of philanthropy. They have
organized food collections at concerts and allowed Greenpeace and other
organizations to distribute literature at their shows.
For his part, Donovan said, this means "when people watch what you do, they tend
to do what you do. You want to be a little bit more responsible.
"We're blessed to be where we are. It's a tough road, but when you get there,
you say, "Wow, this is really a blessing.' There are a zillion bands out there
(that) would like to be where we are. Anything you can do to pass it along, you
would like to do."
News of the band's reunion spread fast among Rusted Root Web rings and fan
sites. For many fans, the reintroduction of Jenn Wertz into the group was the
icing on the cake. Wertz, originally hired as the band's photographer, had
joined Rusted Root as a vocalist and songwriter in the early 1990s, but she left
the band to forge a solo career.
Soon after the decision to reunite for the benefit concert was made, the band
set to work.
"Mike writes most of the core material, and when it gets to a point where he can
bring it to the rest of us, we sit together and play it countless times, until
we get to the point where the magical thing appears -- where we go, "Oh! That
sound is undeniable. This is the way to go,'" Donovan said.
"The blessing for us is that we don't sound like anybody. There's such a
cross-pollination of so many different styles (in our music), and to name one
genre, or style or type -- to put the music in a box -- it's really hard to do.
"But what I tell people is it's music that makes you feel really good; it's
music that's designed to connect to your heart; music that makes you dance."
Go to the Top
Rusted Root is back in action and bolder than ever
By MaryAlice Bitts
SUNDAYNEWS
April 21, 2002
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Rusted Root, the band that disbanded in 1998 when their
founder, lead singer-guitarist Michael Glabici, went solo, is back.
And no one is less surprised than its drummer-percussionist, Jim Donovan. "In my
mind, it was just a hiatus. We never sold the company equipment. We still
maintained the storage space, things like that. It was kind of like putting the
whole machine on idle. We didn't shut it off.
"It's just like a marriage -- with all of the good stuff and all of the bad
stuff. Now we're back on the good stuff."
The good stuff is manifest in "Welcome to My Party," their fourth and most
lavishly produced CD to date, which they are now promoting on a tour that brings
them to Elizabethtown College Friday.
The album released April 9 is characteristically multicultural, featuring eight
diverse songs touching on reggae, rock, soul, folk, funk, African, Latin and --
on one track -- even techno tones.
"Working in this band, the one thing we knew was that we didn't want to put any
boundaries on what sound we had or what things we used and, as a result, we make
this music that sounds like nobody else. And it's really fun to work that way,
not to have to be any one certain thing," Donovan said.
"When you're working from a place where you're trying to get magic to appear,
when you're playing or working on a track, you're kind of giving yourself up to
a spur of the moment, and that's nothing that you can have a plan for. It's
something that you can't really control.
"I think that when you are authentic about it... you can connect to people's
hearts. People want to feel something. They want something that makes them feel,
that makes them dance.
"Whether it makes them cry, or dance with joy, or whatever that connection, that
emotion -- it appeals to everybody."
You might say that the Pittsburgh sextet noted for hits such as "Send Me On My
Way"(recently revived on the soundtrack of Disney's "Ice Age") and its
engergizing live performances as opening band for the likes of the Dave Matthews
Band and Sting, was reborn.
Their reunion is the indirect result of Donovan and his wife having a baby at a
midwife center in Pittsburgh. Several months later, the financially pressed
center called and asked if Rusted Root could perform a benefit.
"I said, "Well, we're not really together. But you bent over backwards for us;
I'll ask and see what happens," Donovan recalled.
He called. And "everyone was really willing, because it was for a really good
cause."
THAT'S NOT SURPRISING. Rusted Root has a history of philanthropy. They have
organized food collections at concerts and allowed Greenpeace and other
organizations to distribute literature at their shows.
For his part, Donovan said, this means "when people watch what you do, they tend
to do what you do. You want to be a little bit more responsible.
"We're blessed to be where we are. It's a tough road, but when you get there,
you say, "Wow, this is really a blessing.' There are a zillion bands out there
(that) would like to be where we are. Anything you can do to pass it along, you
would like to do."
News of the band's reunion spread fast among Rusted Root Web rings and fan
sites. For many fans, the reintroduction of Jenn Wertz into the group was the
icing on the cake. Wertz, originally hired as the band's photographer, had
joined Rusted Root as a vocalist and songwriter in the early 1990s, but she left
the band to forge a solo career.
Soon after the decision to reunite for the benefit concert was made, the band
set to work.
"Mike writes most of the core material, and when it gets to a point where he can
bring it to the rest of us, we sit together and play it countless times, until
we get to the point where the magical thing appears -- where we go, "Oh! That
sound is undeniable. This is the way to go,'" Donovan said.
"The blessing for us is that we don't sound like anybody. There's such a
cross-pollination of so many different styles (in our music), and to name one
genre, or style or type -- to put the music in a box -- it's really hard to do.
"But what I tell people is it's music that makes you feel really good; it's
music that's designed to connect to your heart; music that makes you dance."
Go to the Top
Labels: mary alice bitts, MaryAlice Bitts, rock, rusted root
posted by MaryAlice Bitts at 9:18 AM
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