RUSTED ROOT,
“Stereo Rodeo”
(Adrenaline) ✰✰✰✰1⁄2 —
What if a high-profile, platinum-
selling musical group
threw a party and almost
nobody came? Rusted Root
found out in 2002 when
painfully few of even their
most dedicated fans RSVP’d
to “Welcome to My Party,”
their fifth studio release since
the Pittsburgh-born band
burst upon the charts in 1994
with the major-label smash, “When I Woke.” It appeared it
also would be their last when the principals — most notably
guitarist, lead singer and chief songwriter Michael Glabicki,
multi-instrumentalist and harmony singer extrordinaire Liz
Berlin and percussionist Jim Donovan — began peeling away
to follow their individual muses.
As it turns out, however, the party isn’t quite over just yet.
In fact, if “Stereo Rodeo” is any indication, it’s just getting
restarted. Glabicki, Berlin and original bassist Patrick Norman
have reunited to form the core of a reconstituted Root that not
only has ended a seven-year drought, but arguably has crafted
the first truly authentic RR record since the seminal “Send Me
On My Way” soared up the charts — and subsequently onto a
handful of major motion picture soundtracks — a decade and a
half ago.
It takes barely a bar or two of disc-opener “Dance in the
Middle” to realize that they’ve got their tribal groove back,
and they reinforce that notion throughout the remaining 10-
track ride. There is no “Send Me” here, but neither is there
any filler — just gems such as the accurately named “Driving
One” and “Driving Two,” which bookend the Wilco-esque
title tune; the funky “Bad Son”; the folkish “Weary Bones”;
the poignant “Give You the Grace”; and the tour de force
three-headed home stretch of “Animals Love Touch,”
“Garbage Man” and “Crucible Glow,” the latter reminiscent
of an up-tempo “Cruel Sun.” Ironically, perhaps, the most
Root-like moment may be their percussion-driven cover of
“Suspicious Minds,” with Glabicki’s still eclectic but no less
interesting vocal delivery proving to be the perfect anti-Elvis.
Welcome back to the party. (Dave Fennessy)
Best of the Roses,
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