FreeSound revisits '60s reggae

FreeSound revisits ’ 60s reggae MUSIC CORNER By Robert Feuer IT WAS LATE ON A September after¬ noon, an early hint of autumn’s chill emanating from the Russian River below. Children played on the shore, boaters passed by in their own personal oblivion. The people on the deck of the Stumptown Brewery noticed little of this. All eyes focused on the stage where the band, “FreeSound,” wrapped them in a blanket of music that made the chilly air and fading sky seem far away. Dancers packed the floor and overflowed onto tables and benches. One of these, a small boy, was unable to keep still throughout the evening, like a leaf caught in a storm. The band moved from the lazy beat of reggae to the hard-times blues of the old masters, intermixed with the heavy- handed sounds of Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, wailing like a siren from the road to the river. The members of FreeSound are in their early 20s and currently live together in ForestvOle, though they can also be found in an alternate life in Hawaii. It was there, while attending high school, that lead guitarist Adam Crowe met Keith Gatlin, the burly, dreadlocked singer and rhythm guitarist, and they began writing songs of their own. Joined by drummer Brian Kusko and bassist Ryan Brandvold, they settled in Sonoma County because of its closeness to nature and the fact that “people around here really know how to get down.” They feel inspired by the proximity of many legendary musicians, people who had been a direct influence on their early directions. The members of FreeSound, like most of the young musicians on the scene, are aware there aren’t many survivors in the crass corporate world that the music industry has become. They know that many an artist’s creativity has been shrunk down to the size of the dollar bill. All they want, they say, is to get ever deeper into their music. Like many other new bands, theirs is a grassroots operation. They produce their own CDs, control the publication of their songs, and sell most of their releases at their shows and online. It happened in Monterey: Ryan Brandvold (left) and Keith Gatlin at the Monterey Bay Reggae Festival 2005. They are heavily influenced by the psychedelic jamming of the 1960s, which, to them, was a period of peace, love, good vibes, people in motion, and experimentation. They believe they’re “preserving that culture, building on that energy.” Many of their original songs stem from the mesmerizing pulse of reggae. “Reggae is a way of people joining together with the Great Spirit inherent in all religions, a sharing of a common vibration and union of love. It is a tool for meditation and creativity and overcoming the burdens of the mind,” says Crowe. Theirs is a message of rebirth, they say, and they are looking for like-minded individuals who want to become involved. They see a lot of good energy in the world, but it’s scattered, and they want to help draw it together. “We want to join people we meet on the way and keep them in our lives.” As the sun set on this day at Stumptown, the river flowing by to join the ocean, FreeSound played on. The audience wanted more and the band happily complied. By the end of their 10 encores the sky was dark, with a half-moon silhouetting trees high on the ridge. The band has three CDs out, with two more to be released in the near future. One will be reggae and the other mostly psychedelic rock. Check their Web site at freesoundspace.com for information about their recordings and future shows. A previous generation believed that music could save the world. Those days are gone, said Crowe. “No one person or thing can save the world but music can help us save ourselves from the world.” Ш