Their sound is easily as eclectic as each and every concert. Every time a song is performed, it feels somewhat unique in comparison to the previous time it was played live. It’s all part of the constant musical evolution that is Rusted Root. Celebrating their 20th anniversary, they are taking their blend of world, acoustic, rock/jam, and just about every other conceivable style under the sun to all corners of the US on this summer’s Fortunate Freaks tour. If there is one band to check out this year for the ideal live experience, Rusted Root is that band. They will spend most of March and April finishing up the western leg of their tour before returning to their native state of Pennsylvania to perform at the Launch Music Conference in Lancaster, PA.
The Launch Conference, in its fourth year of existence, places an amalgam of artists and industry professionals in one place to converge and network before the array of artists perform and do what they do best.
Photographer: Duane Rieder
Similar to the way Launch features music spanning a wide variety of genres to satisfy each person in attendance, Rusted Root is certain to provide a jam for every music lover to get on board with. Every new performance guarantees to draw in new additions to their loyal and ever-expanding fan base, affectionately known as “Rootheads.”
“It’s our first year doing the Launch conference,” says Liz Berlin, one of the percussionists and founding members of the band. “It looks like it will be a lot of fun to play there.”
While showcasing their new songs inspired by the last two decades of their existence, the band is looking forward to bringing in both old and new tunes to their shows this year, including Launch. Berlin promises a few new songs in the band’s set list to be performed this year, as well as some of Rusted Root’s old favorites including ‘Ecstasy’, ‘Martyr’, ‘Cat Turned Blue’, ‘Lost In a Crowd’, and of course ‘Send Me On my Way’.
Showing no signs of slowing down in 2012, Rusted Root is currently in the process of wrapping up recording sessions for their new album, Fortunate Freaks, slated for release before they head out on tour yet again this summer. In the same vein that Rusted Root itself is about as unique as they come, the new album has its own twist on the entire recording process. Being the live band who always kept their fans in mind, they called in a favor and asked their fellow Rootheads to support them in the creation process as their Fortunate Freaks Unite Movement.
“We’ve been funding and recording on our own label for a while now, and this was a movement to have our fans be a part of that process,” says Berlin. “Everyone who donates will have their name in the liner notes of the new album, so it should be a long list, actually.”
Aside from the personal, written shout-outs from the band, all Rootheads who donated to the formation of the new album were given various gifts and experiences with the band depending on the donation package chosen. The die-hard fans who opted to donate on a larger scale were provided with meet-and-greets, concert tickets, and personal visits with band members.
Photographer: Duane Rieder
“Some received autographed drum heads and posters”, says Berlin. “We even had people visit us in the studio, help out on some of the clap tracks or even some yelling ‘HEY!’ in the background.”
It is both a way to get fans involved in something they truly care about as well as making it easier for bands like Rusted Root to keep on making music. It all boils down to being about the fans and the band certainly appreciated any dollar they were given to help in the process of creating and promoting the new album.
Liz Berlin is certainly no stranger to the ins and outs of laying down tracks and recording a great album. Along with her husband, she owns a Pittsburgh venue that could definitely be considered what the name describes, Mr. Small’s Funhouse. Her Funhouse has a theatre, two recording studios, a skate park, and a video post-production suite.
“It is a pretty cool place,” she says. “Some parts of Stereo Rodeo were recoded there.”
50 Cent and The Black Eyed Peas have also recorded at her venue. Ziggy Marley, They Might Be Giants and plenty of others have performed at Mr. Small’s as well. As far as Rusted Root’s new album, the band has been recording that in their own studio.
In 2009 Rusted Root released Stereo Rodeo. It was well received and various critics called the album Rusted Root’s best, packed with all the world-music rock sounds a Roothead would expect. It was also the bands latest studio album since 2002’s Welcome to My Party, in which the band experimented with a more pop-influenced sound rather than their traditional grooves. Despite Party not being as critically acclaimed as Stereo Rodeo, the gap between the two studio albums is far from an indication of a lapse in activity for Rusted Root.
“It was seven years between studio recording sessions, but we released the live album somewhere in the middle of that, so it wasn’t really as long as it sounds,” says Berlin, “It was just a matter of gathering all the material and recording. We’re primarily a live band anyway, so we continued to tour following the release of Live.”
That is one of the reasons Rusted Root has maintained such a steady following. Another is their opinion of fans recording their shows. The band has always encouraged people to record their live performances. Over 40 of Rusted Root’s tracks are only available on rare bootlegs recorded in the early nineties. A quick stop atwww.archive.org with a search for their name also pulls up plenty of their recorded shows from the last decade.
“We were one of the first bands to support that”, says Berlin. “A lot of the songs have a different feel when they’re played live. Fans have been taping our shows for a long time…back when people still taped things.”
This helped bolster their popularity as well as result in a number of performances that only exist on these rare bootlegs. As a predominantly live-oriented band, Berlin sees this as one of the band’s biggest strengths.
“The music is really always evolving. Some people would compare the recordings to seeing us play live and say, ‘Wow! This is just something completely different.”
The Live album, regarded as a fan-favorite, was actually done with the fans in mind from the very beginning. It was obvious that Rootheads wanted one.
“We decided to do the live album as something that was done really for the fans,” says Berlin, “Something that could be mastered, mixed and EQ’d for quality so we could reflect the live experience at our concerts. We recorded every show for an entire year and used the best performances for each song. So it’s really the best of an entire year’s worth of performances.”
For someone who has never taken the time to listen to Rusted Root, the live album would be a practical place to start. Though the band hasn’t put any thought into another live album just yet (and they do have plenty of material to work with), they are thinking about releasing newer versions of some of the older songs as bonus tracks in the future.
“We’ve even been playing some of the newer songs in completely different ways as well,” says Berlin, “so that’s something we’re definitely thinking about.”
Rusted Root, always striving to be great at what they do, also enjoy giving back to the community. This May, the band is teaming up with Strangers Helping Strangers, an organization they have worked with before that encourages concert and festival goers to bring non-perishable food or personal hygiene items to the show. Everything collected is then donated to a local food bank.
“We always try and get involved with those types of organizations wherever we play shows,” says Berlin. “We’re always open to working with various groups in other cities as we come across them.”
Untucked Pittsburgh is another charity that the band has worked with. Each year, Untucked is comprised of a group of students and a few adult advisers. The students create a benefit concert and donate all proceeds to a local organization that helps people in need. When Rusted Root performed in 2011, the money raised went to help refugees who had relocated to Pittsburgh from war-torn or poverty stricken countries.
Maybe the band can team up with a few local organizations when they come to Philadelphia, bringing fans and the band together for a cause.
“I’m looking at the schedule right now. I see that Philadelphia is on here, but there is a TBD next to it, so I think we’re still looking at which venue to book for that one,” says Berlin.
Keep an eye (and ear out) for this band and make room for a date on their schedule. After the final touches are put on their album in May and June, they’ll be heading back out on tour.
“July will be a pretty heavy month and August as well,” says Berlin, “so there’s no downtime scheduled just yet. As far as home state tour dates, there are definitely a few.”
Rootheads and people who are about to become Rootheads this summer will appreciate the long list of dates coming up. Having sold three million albums worldwide in their career and given the opportunity to tour with the big shots like Santana, The Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band, and The Allman Brothers, Rusted Root has the ability to walk into a room (or onto a stage) and impress the Hell out of whoever is nearby. Liz Berlin and the rest of the band are just having a good time.
There’s no doubt the good times are a result of their effortless ability to be the catalysts for their own constant musical evolution. The more the give to the crowd, the more they’re able to feed off the energy reciprocated by the audiences they play to.
“We’re all about making music that’s really fun and turns people on at the shows. The crowd’s reaction helps shape the music in such a big way, so that’s essentially how we evolve.”
Written by: Ryan Sullivan
