by: JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer
9/23/2007
Railroad Earth is a name the band has earned, though the sextet never dreamed how appropriate it would become when its members informally started playing together in 2001.
Named for the stacatto-beated Jack Kerouac poem, “October in the Railroad Earth,” the band has become a tribute of sorts to the American work ethic, their fans even loyally dubbing themselves hobos.
Hundreds of tour dates after the New Jersey-based band’s first — and early — break at the Telluride Music Festival, where they played with some of the biggest names in the biz, the hard-to-defi ne bluegrass/newgrass/rock/jazz fusion band has only picked up momentum — and followers.
Railroad Earth will perform for the fi rst time in Tulsa, at Cain’s Ballroom, on Monday.
Supporting its 2006 live, double-CD release, “Elko,” violinist and volcalist Tim Carbone said the band — but especially he — is excited to channel a bit of Oklahoma legend into the performance, he said.
“This is the old home of Bob Wills (fiddle and western swing icon),” he said recently while talking on his cellphone and maneuvering between semi tractor-trailer rigs in midtown Atlanta traffic, on the way to a gig in Birmingham, Ala.
“Yeah, Cain’s Ballroom has a lot of history, which totally resonates for me because I’m a fiddle player and a big Bob Wills fan, so I can definitely set off my imagination.”
With somewhat of a reputation as a “jam band” (this band successfully eschews most stereotypical labels, however, so be forewarned), the double-CD set was something of a no-brainer for the band, Carbone said.
“We wanted to have enough room for the material,” he said matter-of-factly.
The CD has 12 tracks, some as long as 16 minutes, and is a spot-on representation of why the band’s live shows draw so many music fans of so many varied music genres.
“Basically, we’re a rock band,” Carbone said.
“We’re not bluegrass—we have a drummer, and bluegrass doesn’t have drummers. There’s a Celtic feel in there, and music from other parts of the world—and there’s a little bit of jazz because of the improvisational nature of what we do,” he said, when asked to describe the band’s sound.
To him, the improv isn’t as much about jamming as it is about “adding commentary” to arrangements they’ve already written, he said.
“A lot of what we do is having conversations on stage with each other, so we’re passing it back and forth. Someone may ‘say’ something with an instrument, then someone will ‘comment’ back. John Skehan and I (mandolin player), we tend to do that a lot,” he said.
He insists that being from New Jersey—with easy access to an almost limitless melting pot of musical styles, genres and shows—was a major factor in the creation of the band’s unique sound.
“But not in the typical way of, I’m from such-and-such part of the country, so of course we’ll play this particular style of music,” he said.
“I think our music was more influenced by what we all listened to collectively,” he said.
“We’re also a multi-age group, so everyone has another take on the music pieces we do. Everyone has different things that they bring to the band.”
However, the “newgrass” label often sticks to the band, because it was invented in New Jersey, he said.
These labels are true, however: Railroad Earth is a hardworking band, loyal to its fans, who also are very, very loyal to it.
Carbone said even the name of the album is a song —a tribute to a small Nevada town the band visits during its frequent road trips.
“We find ourselves going through Elko fairly regularly. The hotels are cheap; it’s a friendly town—kind of a funky old Western town,” he said.
“So we’ve stayed there often enough and some of the band members have lost enough money in the casinos there that it has its own place in our history,” he said with a laugh.
Jennifer Chancellor 581-8346
jennifer.chancellor@tulsaworld.com
RAILROAD EARTH
When
Doors open 7 p.m. Monday
Where
Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.
Tickets
$18, available in person at Cain ’s Box Offi ce, Starship Records & Tapes, Reasor’s Customer Service, online at www.tulsaworld.com/gettix or by calling (866) 443.8849 Sneak a peek online www.tulsaworld.com/RRearth
Copyright © 2007, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved
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