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Artist Bio:
Indeed, Railroad Earth’s music is driven by the remarkable songs of
front-man, Todd Sheaffer, and is delivered with seamless arrangements
and superb musicianship courtesy of all six band members. As mandolin
player John Skehan points out, “Our M.O. has always been that we can
improvise all day long, but we only do it in service to the song. There
are a lot of songs that, when we play them live, we adhere to the
arrangement from the record. And other songs, in the nature and the
spirit of the song, everyone knows we can kind of take flight on them.”
Sheaffer continues: “The songs are our focus, our focal point, they
give the improvisation a starting point. The jams sort of ‘comment’ on
the songs, and give them color. Some songs lend themselves to
improvisation. They ‘want’ to be approached that way - where we can
explore and trade musical ideas and open them up to different
territories. But sometimes it is what the song is about.”
When the band does elect to “comment” on a song via an extended
improvisation, they really cook – and have received the approval of no
less than Grateful Dead bass player Phil Lesh, who knows a thing or two
about jamming. In fact, Mr. Lesh even used the RRE members as the
“Friends” in his Phil & Friends band, and learned to play some of
RRE’s repertoire, blowing the group’s collective mind.
So: they can jam with the best of them, but they’re not a jam
band. They’re bluegrass influenced, but they use drums and amplifiers
(somewhat taboo in the bluegrass world). What kind of music is it then?
Mandolin/vocalist John Skehan offers this semi-descriptive term: “I
always describe it as a string band, but an amplified string band with
drums.” Tim Carbone takes a swing: “We’re a Country & Eastern band!
” Todd Sheaffer offers “A souped-up string band? I don’t know. I’m not
good at this.” Or, as a great drummer/singer/mandolin player with an
appreciation for Americana once said: “Rock & roll!”
http://www.railroadearth.com/band/
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