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Thursday, June 19, 2003

As Rusted Root prepares to launch another summer tour, on which the band will continue recording for a live release, two members -- Jenn Wertz and Jim Donovan -- are celebrating new releases of their own, as is former percussionist Jim DiSpirito, while Michael Glabicki continues to work on his own solo project in the downtown studio he built.

	Rusted Root in a 2002 publicity photo: Jim Donovan, Jenn Wertz, Michael Glabicki, Liz Berlin, John Buynak and Patrick Norman. Click photo for larger image.

An update ...

Jenn Wertz

Keeping a band together while constantly running off for six weeks at a time to tour with Rusted Root is a balancing act Jenn Wertz has decided to sidestep for the moment, releasing her latest batch of songs on the aptly titled "Acoustic."

She's backed on "Innocence," a haunting final cut with production by Michael Glabicki, by a local supergroup of sorts -- Korel Tunador, Frank Marcello and Randy Venturini. But the other seven tracks are solo Wertz, including two recorded live in Erie.

As the singer-guitarist explains her decision to go it alone for now: "It takes a lot of time and commitment to put a band together, and I've done it a few times now. But it turns into fits and starts because my main commitment is Rusted Root. And I just don't, at this point, want to put that commitment into another group of people, and then they're frustrated or disappointed when I have to leave for long periods of time."

	Jenn Wertz

It's not that she hasn't been working with other people.

She and Liz Berlin have been backing each other at joint unplugged performances, including one tonight at 6 on the WYEP stage at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

And she's been sitting in with Boxstep, including a show tomorrow opening for Wilco on the Symphony Stage at the festival.

The Boxstep situation came together after Sarah Siplak's starring role in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" was extended.

As Wertz says, "They called me and said, 'Hey, we want to keep working while she's doing this, if you could just come down and play a couple gigs or a couple songs.'"

They didn't have to ask her twice.

"I think they're a great band," she says. "It's a different style. But it's also being able to play with Daryl Fleming, who's amazing, and Eric Graf and learn different songs and kind of walk away without having a commitment. It's sort of like cheating on your boyfriend with a free pass or something."

She and Berlin started working together -- outside Rusted Root, that is -- when they opened a six-week Root tour.

"We hadn't rehearsed or anything," she says. "We just knew songs from playing with each other over the years and basically lightly accompanied one another playing the backup parts that we just figured out over time. And it was really well-received. It went so well that we put together a little Web site [www.lizandjenn.com] and Opus One started to book us."

"It's meant to be totally raw acoustic," she says of "Acoustic." "I really, really feel like I'm still developing as a writer and a performer, so I wanted to get the songs down. It was originally going to be an album with musicians on it, but I really liked the way that the songs ended up sounding and I had some live material so I put them all together and I'm really happy about it."

-- Ed Masley

Jim Donovan

There was a hint of Jim Donovan's "Revelation #9" on the last track of the last Rusted Root record. The band was looking to do something big and rhythmic without taking another "Drum Trip," so the drummer cooked up "People of My Village," an uncharacteristic venture into techno for the tribal-acoustic group.

	Jim Donovan

Donovan was drawn to electronic music through bands such as Crystal Method and, particularly, Meat Beat Manifesto.

"The guy behind Meat Beat Manifesto, Jack Dangers, continues to blow my mind with what he does with drums," Donovan says. "I had never heard anything like it before, and it really busted up what I thought electronic music was, which was the typical boom-bish-boom-bish Metropol crap that I don't like. This stuff had some real emotion and thought put into it."

Donovan worked with Meat Beat Manifesto bassist Mark Pistol to mix the Rusted Root track and, in the midst of that project, started working on a solo record using a recording studio he carries in a suitcase.

He recorded guitar and drums parts, along with various found sounds like a clock radio and snippets of television. "A lot of it was really spur of the moment, capturing different moments or ideas, and the more time-intensive work was learning to mix it and shape it."

The result is a record that ranges from monster dance tracks with metallic riffs, such as the title track and "Las Vegas," to more hypnotic grooves like "Love 1," which features a guest vocal by Root singer Liz Berlin. "Unblind" ventures into hip-hop dub with rapper Blowout, whom he met on the last Root tour.

Donovan says of the varying beats: "I've always been into things that make people move and make people dance. I'm really interested in what happens when you use repetitious rhythm on groups of people or individuals, whether it be slow, for meditation, or really fast, where you raise their energy level and make them dance."

Donovan, who teaches drum circles when he's not playing, says that Rusted Root has gotten away from the more drum-intensive stuff recently and that "Revelation #9" is a way for him to bring it to the forefront.

"Yeah, it has more aggression to it," he says. "Some of it's a little darker, some of it's gritty. The thing about it is, it did what it was supposed to, which is express the different emotions I had at the time of writing them. That's usually at the heart of anything I create -- there has to be an emotion behind it to make it magic."

Donovan will perform pieces from the solo record with Berlin, Root bassist Patrick Norman, guitarist Mark Sanders, Blowout and a laptop at Mr. Small's next Thursday. There also will be a DJ dance party. Tickets are $12 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 1-800-594-TIXX.

-- Scott Mervis

Jim DiSpirito

Jim DiSpirito was the percussionist in a band made distinctive by its reliance on unusually musical percussion. He dropped out of Rusted Root in 2001 to spend more time with his wife, singer-songwriter and WQED personality Carol Lee Espy, and their 6-year-old son, Daniel.

	Jim DiSpirito

But DiSpirito's time with Root sharpened his chops. Being in the hottest local band gave him an introduction to many of the best rock and jazz musicians in town. And when the local band went on the road with a series of international headliners -- including Plant and Page, The Allman Brothers Band, Dave Matthews Band and Santana -- they came back looking and sounding more professional.

DiSpirito drew on his enhanced musical skills and access to talent on his new independent album, "Big Silence." The disc, which he produced with his wife in their home studio, includes work by about 20 prime Pittsburgh musicians, including Dave Brown, Eric Reibling, Dave Hanner, Dwayne Dolphin, Ben Opie and Pete Freeman. Guest vocalists include Espy, Paul Hannan, Paul Tabachneck and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Rob Rogers.

More important, however, is the diversity of styles the session artists contributed to "Big Silence." With DiSpirito behind the wheel, it's no surprise the music is percussion-driven. But a third of the cuts boast lyrics, including Daryl Le Roy's understated spoken-word storytelling on the title cut. "Big Silence" stretches from twangy Cajun county to dark turntable scratching. Instrumentation ranges from traditional guitars, keyboards and bass to dulcimer, South Indian violin to metal fuel can.

"There are a lot of sounds and textures to the music," says DiSpirito. "I have somewhat of a wide palette, so it's not surprising the record has a landscape like that. I struggled a bit with that -- should I let down the restrictions of keeping a cohesive sound or let the music dictate where each song would go? It sounds cliched, but I really think ["Big Silence"] is like a film score of the last two years of my life and encapsulates all the interests I've had in my life and my music."

If some of the songs sound like thematic film scores, that's a good thing. DiSpirito has composed for films in the past and says he's talking with film companies about licensing music from "Big Silence."

Expect an ensemble performance sometime this fall. In the meantime, DiSpirito says he's focused on marketing the album, launching a series of percussion workshops, producing other people's projects and demo-ing songs for his wife's next album.

"Since stepping out of Rusted Root," he says, "I've gotten into a nice pattern of spending time with Carol and Daniel and working on music that I enjoy with people from in town and out of town. It's really the best of both worlds."

-- John Hayes