The Michigan Daily - Wlu4r, e . - Thursday,September 14, 1995 - 78
Rusted Root's underground success
Pittsburgh band's easygoing attitude wins grass-roots following
By Karl Jones
Weekend, etc. Editor
A man crouches on a rock at Pine
Knob music theater, hand painted
Rusted Root t-shirt on his back and
wooden sign with the same name at
his feet. No commercial band gear,
just shiny, gold lettering that it
must've taken him hours to paint.
"Man," he sighs with a slow grin.
"I've loved Rusted Root since the
first time I ever heard them play."
That's it. One show, one discovery
and you're hooked. With minimal ra-
dio play for their latest album "When
I Woke" and a video that has not yet
been sucked into regular rotation on
MTV, Rusted Root is like an object in
a dark room. You don't know it's
there until you trip over it on your
way to the light.
According to Patrick Norman (bass,
electric guitar, vocals), the band was
even an entity that its own members
stumbled over unexpectedly.
Mike Glabicki (lead vocals,
acoustic guitar), Jim Donovan (set
drums, percussion, guitar), and Liz
Berlin (vocals and percussion) were
what Norman refers to as the "gen-
esis of Rusted Root." The three got
together with another bassist in 1990
to make a demo tape for a rock
competition in their hometown of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The tape
was selected out of around 200 other
entries, and the band moved on to
the live performance part of the
competition.
"Things didn't work out with their
original bassist, and Jim (a friend
from high school) asked me if I
would play bass with him for the
show in a couple days," Norman
said. "I had actually never played
bass before, but I said 'Uh... sure,
I'll do it!' I figured I would fake my
way through it."
Norman's "poser bass" certainly
fooled the audience, and the band
placed second in the competition.
Around that time, John Buynak (gui-
tar, flute, vocals) and Jenn Wertz
(former background volalist)
stumbled across Rusted Root as
well.
"They were actually out taking
pictures of us one day, and we said,
'Hey, you want to join the band,
too?"' Norman laughs, like recruit-
ing photographers is the world's
most natural occurence. "They said
yeah, so we recorded an album to-
gether (Cruel Sun, 1993). We asked
Jim Dispirito (percussion) to join
the band after a while, and that's
just basically it."
That's basically it... except for
that tiny part about moving from
their indie Blue Duck label to Mer-
cury Records. And those times they
toured with a few little bands like,
oh, Page and Plant, the Grateful
Dead, and Toad the Wet Sprocket.
And the fact that sales for their in-
dependent -release "Cruel Sun" are
currently near 350,000.
But that's life with Rusted Root.
Things happen, bands form, record
deals are signed, and the world
keeps turning. No big deal.
"We really didn't shop our stuff
very hard to record companies,"
Norman insists. "We were surprised
(when Mercury approached us),
but... they weren't the typical record
weasels you always hear about, so
we decided to take the leap of faith
and sign."
Rusted Root spent most of the
past year touring in support of their
Mercury debut album "When I
Woke." One stop even brought them
to Ann Arbor's Tower Records for
an acoustic show during Hash Bash
in April.
"I was shocked at how large of a
turn-out there was just for that festi-
val. People were pretty peaceful, but
I guess with the nature of Hash Bash,
they're going to be peaceful," Norman
laughed.
This summer, the band toured
mainly with the Allman Brothers, but
also did a few shows with Page and
Plant and the Grateful Dead. With so
many members playing so many in-
struments, Rusted Root's arena shows
have become studies in motion. Band
members dash between basses and
bongos, guitars and pennywhistles,
never missing a beat or diminishing
the intensity of their magical, earthy,
hip-shaking sound.
Connecting with the crowd is im-
portant to Norman, so at every arena
show, he tries to pick out at least one
person he can see and concentrate on
their reaction to the music.
"A huge part of what we are is to
be interactive with the audience and
kind of make the energy a cyclical
effect," Norman said. "We give out
energy, the audience returns it, and
in return, we give it back out again.
It's a very personal thing."
Rusted Root, a surprising success with independet releases selling over 350,000 copies.
Norman is not the only band mem-
ber concerned with the flow of en-
ergy. Singer Michael Glabicki's
vocals, while haunting and power-
ful, are occasionally difficult to
understand. No, Norman says,
Glabicki is not singing in a differ-
ent language. He is simply moving
where the musical energy leads him.
"They're just vocalizations,"
Norman said. "Tones are energy
waves, and they hit different parts
of your body. If you hear a low bass
throbbing, you'll feel it in a differ-
ent place than you feel a high guitar
scream. Rhythmically, things work
like that as well. When you're cre-
ating lyrics, that might come up as
just a chant because you don't have
a word for it yet, and sometimes
those mantras work better than any
word would."
The summer tour is over now,
and days of cramming ten people
onto one bus are long gone for
Rusted Root. No more traveling so
long that one town blurs into an-
other, and you forget where you
are. Alas, the band is moving on to
other projects while the energy is
still high.
"We're planning on covering
Carlos Santana's 'Evil Ways' for a
Jodie Foster movie called 'Home
for the Holidays"' Norman said,
Foster, apparently a fan, was the
one who approached the group about
recording a song for the film, which
will star Holly Hunter and Robert
Downey Jr.
"I'm flattered because I'm a big fan
of hers," said Norman. "I think she's
an amazing person."
Beyond that, Rusted Root just plans
to stick to their zen philosophy and go
where the energy flow takes them. °
"More playing,just keeping the cre-
ativity open and flowing. That's my
plan for the future of this band,"
Norman explained. "Wherever that
leads us... that's fine with me."
Natalie Merchant
Tigerlily t
Elektra
When singer Natalie Merchant
left 10,000 Maniacs two years ago,
the band was enjoying its critical
and commercial peak after years of
limited success. Her decision came
as a surprise to some, but over the
course of five albums of the Mani-
acs' quirky, lovely pop-folk, Mer-
chant had quietly assumed leader-
ship of the group.
Merchant joined the Maniacs at age
16 and literally grew up with the band.
By 1992's much-lauded "Our Time in
Eden," the singer was writing all of
the band's music and lyrics. She had
shed her stage-frightened, frumpy,
flower-child image and matured into
a delightful frontwoman and a confi-
dent performer.
After playing several environ-
mental and political benefits, in-
cluding a stint with pal Michael
Stipe at Clinton's inaugural ball,
Merchant finally delivered
"Tigerlily," her long-anticipated
solo debut.
Merchant distinguishes her solo
sound from the Maniacs' immedi-
ately, dispensing with her old band's
jangly, richly textured, layered
acoustic sound in favor of simpler
arrangements of her piano, organ
and vibraphone, Jennifer Turner's
guitar, Barrie Maguire's bass and
Peter Yanowitz' percussion.
And the results are definitely
mixed. "San Andreas Fault" dis-
plays Merchant's honeyed alto at
its sweetest as she draws a caution-
ary picture of the "jet-set life" of
Hollywood's "promised land." In
the beautiful, sobering "Seven
Years," Merchant sings as a
wronged lover, hiding a quiet vio-
lence in her voice as she sings,
"Damn you betrayer / how you lied
/ but for seven years / you were
loved."
Merchant returns to the subject
of fame in "River" as she eulogizes
dead actor River Phoenix. Unfortu-
nately, the song suffers from an
uncharacteristic lyrical heavy-hand-
edness ("Let the youth of America
mourn / include him in their prayers
... it's nothing but a tragedy").
But Merchant has always been at
her finest when telling other
people's tales, and here "Tigerlily"
succeeds. The pretty "Beloved
Wife" shows a man mourning the
loss of his partner of 50 years. Mer-
chant sings simply, "My love is gone
/ she suffered long /in hours of pain
... I can't believe I've lost the very
best of me." The sweet, and sour
story "Cowboy Romance" works
despite a too-slow tempo thanks to
Jay Unger's violin.
The summer single "Carnival" at
first intrigues but quickly disap-
points, and the unrequited love story
"Jealousy" and the somber "The
Letter" both lack the musical and.
lyrical richness and complexity of
Merchant's Maniacs work.
Overall, though, it's a graceful;
assured debut by a singer finally at,
the forefront.
-Jennifer Buckley .
See RECORDS, page 8
READ DAILY ~
ARKfTS.-
_ _ _. __
Natalie Merchant is more tiger lily than shrinking violet.
ack to SbO1
--r-
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