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Rusted Root
by Carrie Nieman

Rusted Root is more than just a band. These Afro-Latin/Eastern-influenced jam-rockers thrive on sharing their diverse interests and social causes with fans in addition to their contagious beats.

“We try to live in a world community and bring a little bit more than just music to the places we travel,” explains bassist Patrick Norman. On its current tour, the band encourages fans to bring canned goods to shows to be donated to local soup kitchens. Rusted Root sometimes also donates a dollar of each ticket sold to a local charity. “It's not about give everything you have,” Norman says. “It's doing what you can. If everybody gives a little bit it can make a huge impact.”

Rusted Root made its first big impact in 1994 with the platinum-selling "When I Woke," the band's second album and first major label release. Their organic blend of pop-tinged world beat was followed up by 1997's more introspective "Remember" and 1998’s “Rusted Root,” which represents a return to their literal roots because it was written and recorded at a studio in their hometown of Pittsburgh during time off from touring.

“Musically it's more concise, written to take the listener on a journey but in a different way than we've done it,” Norman says. “We spent time trying to make a few of the tunes pop songs. We're not really a pop song band but we enjoy the craftsmanship of being able to write like that.”

Norman acknowledges that among the jam-rock genre the idea of a big-selling “pop song” is often frowned upon, causing the knee-jerk assumption that a band is “selling out.”

“It's a matter of trying to create a really good pop tune in a different way,” he says, “we're trying to be experimental and do something different than most bands by using a lot of different percussion and quirky sounds created in the studio. Creatively we're trying to find a balance between writing a good song and making sure that song is really interesting and unique.”

The interests of the band members themselves are also unique. The "Paths" page of their Web site (www.rustedroot.com) offers a window into their lives with links to Milarepa (an organization working to free Tibet), the Self-Realization Fellowship, Sufism and others. “We try to include in our sites things that enhance our lives and share that with the fans,” Norman says. “People that enjoy the music and message might enjoy some of the other things we're into. And it helps them see where we're coming from too. It makes me feel good when a fan comes up to me and says they really got a lot out of a suggestion they read on the site, it makes things a little more personal.”

Norman realizes he loses privacy by exposing personal information to fans but he doesn't mind breaking down some barriers. “I don't really want to change my life, I just want to live it,” he says. “A lot of fans just see this artist on the stage, I want them to know I'm just a [regular] dude!” The members of Rusted Root still live in Pittsburgh where they got their start in 1988 when high school friends Michael Glabicki and Liz Berlin began playing together as an acoustic duo. In 1990, the duo drafted drummer/percussionist Jim Donovan and bass-player Norman from their world percussive studies major at the University of Pittsburgh in order to enter a rock competition. A year later they picked up flute/ penny whistle/ mandolin-player John Buynak, and a year after that added percussionist Jim DiSpirito to complete the six-member musical team.

“It's really like a soup, we all play many different instruments, add different ingredients to the music and write different parts for the songs so its a big collaboration,” Norman says. For example, DiSpirito is also the visual artist who created the "spirit alien" and other art that appears on the band’s album covers, tee-shirts and often serves as an inspiration for songs.

Other inspirations have come from touring with a variety of improvisational legends such as The Grateful Dead, Santana and The Allman Brothers Band. “We've always jammed at shows but over the years we've learned how to be more musical with it,” Norman says. “We actually play together and take it somewhere together instead of just a cacophony of sound.

"From Santana I definitely learned how to improvise because I'd be up there and Carlos would just point at me and walk offstage. It’s not a matter for discussion when you've got 20,000 people looking at you.”

Norman compares the art of improvisation to a relationship in which you can complete your partner's sentences. “You have to be disciplined as a band,” he says. “It's easy to be really into what you're doing and think, ‘Wow, I'm burning it up, but I have no idea what anybody else is doing on stage right now.’ You've got to listen and move together. If you're going to tear it up, tear it up at the appropriate time.”