Inasense, a jam band as influenced by the Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers Band as the great Israeli composer Shlomo Carlebach and a variety of Middle Eastern rhythms, has changed its name and concentrated its lineup. Now Soulfarm, lead guitarist-vocalist C Lanzbom, vocalist-acoustic guitarist Noah S. Chase and drummer Mark Ambrosino recently released "Live at Wetlands," their fourth CD together but debut as Soulfarm. The energetic effort was recorded for New York-based Phoenix Presents during a Purim party at the Tribeca jam haven. Jersey Shore-raised Lanzbom's childhood friend T. Lavitz of the Dixie Dregs and Jazz Is Dead on keyboards and former inasense bassist Jay Weissman on bass were among the special guests.

    Tracks include the dynamic, Pearl Jam-like "Wake Me,'' featuring Lanzbom's excellent Allmans-inspired slide playing; the pleading power-ballad ``Don't Stop Now"; the bright, Middle Eastern-inspired rock of ``The Ride,'' the title track of the second Inasense album; longtime Inasense favorite ``Cosmic Clown''; the rousing country-rock of "Let the Wheels Roll,'' featuring funkadelic fiddler Miri Ben Ari; a Hendrix-like rendition of Joni Mitchell's ``Woodstock''; the rootsy, harmonic funk of ``Ain't We All'' and a funky cover of the Dead's typically mellow ``Sugaree,'' both of which boast inspired music duels between Lanzbom and Lavitz; and two Carlebach tunes a surf-rocking version of "Od Yishama' and a raging acoustic take on "Dovid Melech.''

    Often considered "the Jerry Garcia," the late Carlebach employed Lanzbom as guitarist in his band based on an Israeli kibbutz-like moshav. It was there that Lanzbom formed a songwriting partnership with the California-raised Solomon. When the pair moved to New York in the early '90s, they formed Inasense, now Soulfarm.     The trio was the only U.S. act recently featured at the Jewish Cultural Festival in Berlin. There they shared the stage with Israeli folk-rocker David Broza. They'll band together again for Broza's annual winter concert Dec. 24 at New York's Town Hall.

    Touring extensively in support of "Live at Wetlands," Soulfarm will promote the Phoenix disc while raising food and funds for the needy with four holiday shows. The Jam If You Can Holiday Crusade, to benefit area food banks, began Dec. 13 at Zig's Bar & Grill in Alexandria, Va., and ends there Dec. 30, making Washington D.C., the only market to host two of the benefits. In between, there'll be The Saint, Asbury Park, Dec. 20; The North Star Bar, Philadelphia, Dec. 21; and 8X10, Baltimore, Dec. 26.

    "Ever since I picked up my instrument at a very young age, it's always been about healing," Lanzbom says. "When I play music, I want it to have a deeper meaning, as something that's worthwhile, so I can feel like I'm doing something positive for this world. Jam If You Can is another way we can contribute. It's about helping your fellow man. We want to give something back to the Earth. Ecology, having fun, feeling good, having compassion, bringing peace to the world and making it a better place, that's what Soulfarm is about."

    To find out more visit www.soulfarm.net and enjoy the following chat with Lanzbom, who has three solo albums and a Hebrew album with Solomon to his credit.    

Why the name change and how does it reflect the people in the band and the music?

   Well, the name change is about a couple of things. One, we honed the band down to the three of us. There'll be others joining us, but the three partners are me, Noah and Mark. Nothing really forced a change in the name, but the opportunity to change the name came along when we got a national booking agent and publicist in place. We're signing a deal with a manager so we took the opportunity to change our name and reinvent ourselves.

    Some fans are upset about it, but a lot of club owners and press people love the name Soulfarm because it projects an image. Club owners have told me that they've had customers tell them, 'Yeah, I'll go see that.' So it's really about going out there and getting more fans. That's what's happening. We'll build it up with the new name.   

How has immediately coming out with a live disc on Phoenix helped to jump over any hurdles of a name change?

    It was good timing. The record deal with Phoneix enabled us to do a national mailer with our new name. Then when we had our CD release party at Wetlands. We gave 400 out with the price of admission. It's basically more exposure. We've done a mass media thing with our publicist, Randy Alexander. So it's really benefited us.

    Some people call and say they're upset that they can't call us Inasense. Someone said it was like calling Deep Purple, Green Vomit. I loved Inasense. We built it up for quite a few years. But the new name has got people talking about us. Any exposure is good exposure. So we're growing.   

Besides T. Lavitz, who are the special guests?    

    Miri Ben Ari is a new violinist on the scene. She plays lot at The Blue Note and has a deal with Blue Note Records. She's a very fiery player and a good friend of ours. I've done things for her, and she's sat in with us quite a few times. She's only on one song on the CD. We couldn't include all the cuts so we picked the choice ones for this CD. She's also on three cuts on my last solo album, "Meditations."

    Fred Walcott is a percussionist who's played with us a lot. He was on our last one, 'Shinebox,' which didn't come out that long ago. I've known Fred for the last six years. He has his own project, and he plays with Buster Poindexter and Jimmy Vivino a lot.

    On the road, we'll be four players and for big shows, we'll add a fifth player on percussion or sometimes keyboards.

Maybe T. once in a while?   

   Maybe. We go way back. I've known him since we were little kids. He's one of my oldest friends. We have played together on and off for many years. He got involved with the Dregs and other projects and I went my way. I played on one of his solo albums. We were roommates in Florida and lived together in Los  Angeles. When I lived in Israel, I brought him to Israel with Billy Cobham and Jeff Berlin. That was a lot of fun. He's just done a lot of projects or he would play with us more.

  Will you get a fulltime keyboardist because organ really adds to the band's organic sound?

   Yes. We want do that, but it won't be for a while. We're trying to find that right player. If T. were available, he would do it, but that this point, he's not. So we're looking for the right player to fit that spot. That Hammond B-3 sound goes perfectly with what I do. We have to find a really capable player who sounds like we've been playing together forever.

Comment on your relationship with Shlomo Carlebach, how he influenced your music and how you often play his music.

    I feel very lucky to have known Shlomo Carlebach. He was a genius of our generation. He was an amazing teacher and scholar. The way he would interpret things, I felt there was nobody (in the Jewish world) interpreting them in this manner. He was very positive. Besides all that, he was the Jewish composer of the century. He wrote very simple melodies, but they were so strikingly catchy that people could connect to them right away. It's something that I've incorporated into my playing. Besides, I want to give respect and honor to whom I believe is the master of our generation. That's what makes us (Soulfarm) unique. I always like to incorporate his melodies because I knew the man, I played with him. I'm next in line with him. I know Shlomo has a profound effect on the listener. Unfortunately, Jerry Garcia is gone, but you see how Bob Weir has a profound effect on the audience. I'm taking Shlomo's music and expounding on it, keeping it alive, opening it to a world that didn't know about it. Although I play obscure places, it doesn't matter because the music comes from a spiritual place. It's great music.

Comment on the Purim party that's captured on 'Live at Wetlands.'

    It was a time of joy and a good opportunity to record a concert. We do a Purim party every year. It's too bad they're not recorded. Wetlands was packed with people having a great time. They had great energy. We're very thankful that it worked out that way. You can hear that on the record in the live performance. Usually you take a live recording and go back into the studio and fix things. This is literally live. It's as organic as it can get.

A cover of Woodstock is on your last album, 'Shinebox.' Why release it again?     

    We told the record company not to include it, but as we were mixing it, they were like, 'Please. We love that song so much. Please put it on.' We didn't want the same songs on the CD, but they begged us.

You recently did a benefit at Town Hall for the Jewish community in Hebron, the Palestinian-dominated birthplace of Abraham, patriarch of the Jews and Arabs. Comment on why that was important to you.

    We're in the process of doing a few benefits for them. We feel connected to the crisis in the Middle East, having lived in Israel. This is a very worthy cause because for the Jewish community there, it's very dangerous for them. We feel they have a right to be there as well, but it's a big controversy.

Tell me about how you came together with Shlomo and Noah at the moshav.

    It started out as a bunch of Shlomo Carlebach followers, people that were very connected to him. It was actually a bunch of hippies -- about 12 families in the '70s -- that decided to move to Israel and start this community. One of them was Noah's family. I lived on that moshav as well. That's where we met.

    The sad thing is we're doing another benefit on Dec. 9 for one of brothers from that moshav, Esh Kodesh, was just murdered in Jerusalem. He was one of the security guards who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist act. That was pretty devastating. This is one of our family members. It really, really hits home. So it's pretty hard time for all of us.

    There can be peace, but the violence has to stop from both sides. I'm going to be a little biased, but there's many, many things I see right now in the American papers. They're depicting Palestinians getting beat up and being overtaken by the Israeli army, but they don't realize what's actually going on is that both sides are being hurt. When they use these slingshots with rocks, they're like bullets. They're killing people. Right now, Israel is stronger and that's why more of the Palestinians are getting hurt, but I really know first-hand from being that all the Israelis want peace. I mean, who wouldn't want peace? I think the issue is more that the Palestinians want Jerusalem. There's always that fear that they really want more than that. They really don't want Israel to exist. I know it's pretty extreme what I'm saying, but that's what I think it is.

Comment on the Cultural Jewish Festival in Berlin.

    That was our second time. It's pretty unique. My parents are Holocaust survivors. They're not alive anymore, but being invited to Berlin, I honestly see blood on every corner because so many people were massacred there. But I feel I have some reason to be there and bring this music and Shlomo's holy music to there. It gives my life more purpose. And I'm honored to do that because any fixing in the world is a great opportunity.

    But it is pretty intense thing, being the son of my Holocaust-survivor parents. They died young and I believe its because of the stress that put on their lives. But I do have to believe in the positive. So we went there to bring positive energy, to make the world a better place, to bring peace to the world.

I understand you performed with David Broza there.      

    I have known about him for many years but never got a chance to meet him or really hear his music until we just met in Berlin. We do have a few people in common. We have used some of the same engineers and recording studio here in America. So when I heard he was playing in the same festival I went to his sound check and introduced myself to him. We struck up a great relationship and he immediately asked me if I wanted to sit in and play with him that night. I said I would love to. That is one of the fun things that I love doing is playing with other musicians and bands. It is very inspirational and I thrive on it. We jammed back stage together until it was time for him to go on and then I played three songs with him. He is an amazing guitarist, singer and writer. I immediately became a fan and a friend. We hung out the whole time in Germany. Also we were both part of the final concert where different acts perform. Soulfarm backed him up on one of his famous songs called 'It Will Be All Right.' So that was a lot of fun. He asked me if I may want to do a double bill together maybe at Wetlands in the spring. We are going to talk about that. He also asked me if I may want to sit in at Town Hall on Dec. 24. I told him I would love to but we have not spoken to each other since I got back. I have to call him this week.                                                              

Tell me about the rock 'n' roll tzedakah of The Jam If You Can Holiday Crusade.

        It is an honor at any time to help others. In our busy lives, it is easy to forget that to help someone or to do someone a favor whether it be a stranger, your wife or any little thing, that that is the highest honor. To help someone is actually doing me the favor. That is my philosophy. We hope that in our small way, we can help someone. It is really what our music is about. Joy, happiness, dancing, singing. Bringing something positive to the table. No one should ever be hungry except for knowledge.