By 10:30, Gutter has done all of his vocal parts for the slow-burning, funked-up “Black Leather Bag” and the Beach Boys-meet-311 “Troublesome,” including three parts on the bridge of the former that I watched the room create out of whole cloth.
Ward, now an elementary-school music teacher with a job that defines him, leans over and asks me asks if I’m familiar with late-career Billie Holiday. I say not really. “Her voice got raspy, but it was still totally on. Gutter’s like that now.” Ward’s right. Gutter’s resonant and powerful, but warmly rough around the edges. No one can make an inhale musical like Gutter.
At one point, he walks over to me during a smoke break with lyrics written out in Sharpie on an unlined piece of white paper and effortlessly sings the three verses of “Dear Mr. President,” about a young soldier in Iraq with a family back home. I tell him it’d make a great a capella piece. Who knows how it will end up.
The band plan to have recording done for these pieces, plus a new recording of old-time live favorite “Rock Like War,” by June 15, adding to that a bunch of never-heard stuff from the Longview Farm recordings that resulted in Viva Nueva!. They’re not sure yet what will be the single they hand-deliver to WCYY the next day. I’m not sure they’re sure yet what this reunion will eventually look like.
Their respective post-Rustic projects — As Fast As, Paranoid Social Club, Seekonk, el Grande, Lettuce, McNaboe’s solo work — are all worthy in their own rights. Does Rustic still equal or outweigh the sum of those parts? Are the old times Roods experiences as Albee wraps his head in a paper bag or cups a fart in his face likely to engender warm feelings for continuing the relationship? Will Ward’s principal let him take personal days for a brief tour of the Atlantic coast?
That all remains to be seen. For the summer of 2007, however, fans of a band who’ve shown me they remain one of contemporary rock’s few true originals can revel in the memories of 1997, when Granny Killam’s was the best club in town and Rustic Overtones were its best draw.
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Sam Pfeifle: sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com
