The Home Grown Compilations: 10 Years of Jam Juxtaposition
Bryan Rodgers
2003-04-26
On May 6, 2003 Leeway's Home Grown Music Network will release Home Grown 5, a 2-CD compilation of live tracks from bands that are HGMN members. Though it has been 3 years since we last released a compilation, the desire to continue doing so never strayed far from our minds. Created by Lee Crumpton during the initial formation of the HGMN, the Home Grown Compilations have a very interesting history. The first edition, circa 1994, was an ear-opening experience for a large group of music fans. As original jam-touring bands grew in the wake of Phish, the need was evident to bring the scattered groups of fans together with musicians and music that they could relate to. The explanation is as simple as realizing that the New York Ominous Seapods fans would probably dig a band from Virginia – say, Agents of Good Roots – if they had only heard about them. Home Grown: A Compilation of Original Kind Music became a fixture at college radio stations and helped stoke the flames of organic growth among hard working bands. These included the aforementioned Agents and Seapods as well as original harbingers of the scene like Purple Schoolbus, Jupiter Coyote, The Grapes, and some freeky guy from Fredericksburg, VA named Keller Williams. Home Grown 2: Smokin' Jams is still regarded as the best volume by many longtime listeners. Released in 1996, the CD features tracks from many bands that would come to necessitate the creation (for better or worse) of the word "jamband". Strangefolk, ekoostik hookah, Percy Hill, Day By The River, and Schleigho highlighted this edition, which clearly shows the natural expansion that is still happening at HGMN today. Those bands have all changed over the years, but the names have become common. Home Grown 2 also featured the jam-rock of yeP!, Grinch, and The Pondering, along with eclectic entries Boud Deun, Tiajuana Caravan, and Jamie Notharthomas. This was the same era that saw the first rumblings of what has now become a volcanic eruption of music festivals. All Good, Gathering of the Vibes, High Sierra, and Smilefest all began roughly around this time. Forgive me if these estimations are not perfect; looking back at these releases, incredible amounts of things come rushing back, such as college and people in Greenville, NC, a town which most people who read this will only know from seeing Peasant's Café as a venue in Jambase over the years. Maybe some other time I'll explain my theory that Greenville, along with other select East Coast cities, resided at the core of the hippie jam groove music circus for nearly a decade... Each year of the 1990's seemed drastically different, and when 1998 rolled around the HGMN's face had changed significantly. On Home Grown 3: Organic Grooves, gone were the juicy grapes that graced the cover of Vol. 1 and the rustic mason jar from the front of Vol. 2. In its place was a decidedly more intense, psychedelic vision of mutated musical crops and digital infusion. This edition featured the futuristic sounds of The Disco Biscuits, who are now in an all-star class of longtime members that includes Keller, Strangefolk, and Percy Hill. The Seapods made a return appearance on HG3 with a different sound. More beloved bands like The Headstone Circus, The Recipe, Foxtrot Zulu, Calobo, and hipbone formed this, my personal favorite of the 4 compilations that include a mix of studio and live tracks. Home Grown 4 was the first compilation without a surname, and simplicity is reflected in this thoughtful edition. Taking tracks from widely varying bands like Deep Banana Blackout, Gordon Stone, and Blind Man's Sun, we formed a satisfying mix of styles that signified things to come. Ultimately, our kind of music was about to evolve and multiply in ways we never thought possible. Which brings us to May 2003, over 3 years and a different decade (and millennium) apart from the last compilation, and we have seen the idea we had back in 2000 come to pass. Home Grown 5 is 2 CDs of live tracks that were chosen by the bands. In many ways, this compilation represents a true group effort, and not just because of the bands. Of course, Lee is the Executive Producer of this project, realizing the initial idea and bringing the whole thing together from the artwork to the printing. Hill Goodwin, longtime HGMN art designer, created a colorful, recognizable, and uniquely applied scheme for the packaging and made the layout of the liner notes very attractive and enjoyable. Our local studio compadre James Lee did the knob turning and tone tweaking at Sound Scripture Studios in Durham, NC. Mastering two CDs worth of live material recorded from entirely different sources, venues, musicians, and equipment is not an easy task. Rather than being a detriment to the album, the differences in the tracks now simply lend personality to each performance. I contributed as "Producer", which involved a few days of arranging and re-arranging the band submissions to try and find a good flow from track to track. I also wrote the liner notes, gathered all the venue and date information I could, and helped out with the first part of the mastering process. Brian Asplin orchestrated the late addition of two new bands from our record label, Harmonized Records, and Edwin Vaughan and Drew Willardson were right there with advice and enthusiasm for the duration of the process. It's almost hilarious to look at this finished 2-CD set full of incredible music. It started as a pile of multi-colored CDRs and notes from bands that I'm sure were written on things found in dressing rooms across the nation. The notes they sent were so quirky and personable, I even considered pitching an album artwork idea involving them. The first problem was somehow getting these wholly different bands to sound good together...on the same CD, no less. I tried to make the first disc more of a rocking, energetic affair. It kicks off with Umphrey's McGee ripping through "The Crooked One" from August 2002, and the lyric "prepare for some variations" seems a good way to kick off a compilation CD. This is followed by the deep, tribal jazz of The Motet's "Archer Or The Arrow" from their Live CD, and we immediately encountered the problem of getting a thick, loud, multitrack recording to blend with the other recordings. The problem with these live tracks is that it is nearly impossible to wrestle any more dynamics out of them unless they are professional multitrack recordings. It became a game of adding some echo here, pumping up the bass there, or even diminishing the overall loudness of the really good sounding tracks. Disc One continues with another percussive band, Mecca Bodega. Though they are not gigging regularly now, this track from their Live CD simply must be heard. After Mecca Bodega has spaced the atmosphere of the CD out, kooken and hoomen's "Sunday Evening" glides into the mix. This version was recorded at the bands rehearsal/hangout/creation space, which has been dubbed "Rob's Weirdo Warehouse". When this twinkling electro-jam winds down, Uncle Sammy picks up the funk with their instrumental "Something's Burnin'", leading off a trio of songs that were all recorded during the same week in June 2002. The Uncle Sammy jam was recorded on June 1. Next in line is Raq with their teeth-clenching instrumental "Confuzor", taped at the Adirondack Music Festival on June 7, 2002, followed by OM Trio's "Bulbous", which was captured on June 6, 2002 in Seattle, WA. Rounding out the first disc, which clocks in at 63 momentous minutes, are Nucleus and Perpetual Groove. Nucleus' spiraling "Webspan" was recorded at Café Tomo in Arcata, CA, and the heat of summer 2001 can be felt through this track! The P-Groove track was taped at one of our favorite venues, The Pour House in Raleigh, NC, and is the most recent performance on the compilation. The triumphant tones of "Mr. Transistor" were captured on November 20, 2002. Disc Two features more than 65 minutes of live music with a bit more rootsy feel. Two of our favorite bluegrass-like bands start things off. Acoustic Syndicate lends their aptly titled "Prelude" to crank things up. "Prelude", which was recorded right around the corner from The Pour House at The Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh, drops into a more traditional song from Vermont band Smokin' Grass. Titled "Dixie Hoedown", it was recorded on an unknown date and includes some seriously staggering pickin'! The disc takes a turn for the blues with more Vermont sounds, Seth Yacovone Band's "360". This charging tune was recorded April 7, 2001 at Higher Ground in Winooski, VT. Texas' Moses Guest continues the ripping guitar sound with a trippy "Jam" from their June 20, 1998 show at the san Juan Room in Durango, CO, which was released on their album Live Stages. The sly soul jazz of The Freelance Bishops slides neatly into the lingering Moses Guest chaos. Their body-rocking "Old Town Pump" was recorded at Lilli's in Somerville, MA on November 23, 2000. The horns take the spotlight on that tune as well as the next 4 songs. King Johnson, from Atlanta, GA, chimes in with an in-studio performance of "Personal Thing" recorded at WNCW FM in Spindale, NC. Their adultcontemporaryrootsrockbluesjazzfunk is preserved in majorly compressed FM glory! The centerpiece of disc two is Sim Redmond Band's extended, hypnotic version of "All Is Not Lost", which features guest trumpeter Chris Welter from John Brown's Body. This still gives me chills every time I hear it! Another recording gem from North Carolina surfaces next, as Addison Groove Project tears through their hard-hitting "Neo-Geo" from Ziggy's in Winston-Salem, NC on July 11, 2002. Ending the compilation are two oddly titled bands in Ten Ton Chicken and Garaj Mahal. TTC's free-blowing "Horscht" is just huge. Garaj Mahal wraps things up with their frenetic "Stoked On Razaki", which features Jamie Janover on assorted percussion. This tune was taken from their Live Vol. 3 release, and it will leave you begging for more! As you can see, we (or at least I) are extremely proud of this project! We decided to make a great deal out of it and sell them for only 10 bucks through our website, just to help cover some of the production costs. The majority of the discs will be used as a reward for our customers, who will receive a free copy of Home Grown 5 when they order $50 or more of merch from us. Look for it at many music festivals this summer as well. We will also be sending them to appropriate people like our reps and stores. There's no telling how much this compilation can help these bands! It's definitely the best in a very tough crowd of Home Grown Compilations. I hope you'll check it out! Thanks for reading and have a great month!
Back to Departments/Homegrown Happenings
|
Exclusive:
The Dead! Phil Lesh by Dave Schools. Bob Weir by Keller Williams. Bill Kreutzmann & Mickey Hart by Billy Martin. And more. Subscribe now! 8 issues + 8 FREE CDs. 
