 | ||
 | ||
                               |
|
 |
|
Ready to fly
The second thing you notice is that the guys in the band are really nice. Forget stories about wild parties, groupies, late-night hotel-room destruction and stints in rehab. These guys are husbands and fathers who are perfectly happy to get off the road and back to hearth and home–the all-American guys next door. Fortunately for Boulder music-lovers, Janah are back on the road, this time in support of Swan in the Monsoon, the band’s latest CD. The band will perform on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the Fox Theatre in a co-headline with the Dave Matthews Cover Band. The show is all ages. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. Janah have performed three times in the area, including shows last fall at Festival of the Mabon and at the Fox. The upbeat, high-energy shows had people on their feet doing their best imitations of belly dancers and shouting for more after the last set. "Music isn’t always about what’s wrong with life," says lead singer Keith Johnston. "It can be the other way, too… Music is one of the things that can make life good." And with Janah–made up of Johnston, Ron Cochran, Bill Douglass, Steve Atwell and Rick Shoemaker–life is very good. The band’s first CD, World That Surrounds You, received extensive air play in key markets around the United States, particularly in the band’s home state of Georgia and in the Chicago area. First recorded in 2000, then re-released nationally through Rattlesby Records, the CD carried strong Middle Eastern influences–a product of Johnston’s travels in and around the Mediterranean region and the band’s obsession with international music. Swan in the Monsoon picks up where World ended, using instruments from around the world to create rock ’n‘ roll tracks that are both evocative and emotionally charged. Unlike many bands that find their second CD to be difficult to compete, Janah sailed through Swan. "This one was a lot more focused," Johnston says. "It didn’t take us as long. We had a better idea of what we were trying to do. The first one was an idea before it was anything else, and we had to try to figure out how we were going to pull it off. With the second one, we had already figured out how to do the hardest parts." Part of the ease was due to the CD’s long gestation period. The band had been performing material from World for almost three years, struggling to keep it fresh and alive for themselves and their live audiences. When Janah last passed through Boulder in November, band members were yearning to get into the studio to record songs they had already begun to perform in concert. The result is a CD replete with themes of hopefulness, completion and the eternal human desire to rise above struggle. "Bedouin Sky" is perhaps the song most reminiscent of World, featuring a strong Middle Eastern vibe and inspired by the band of Bedouins Johnston met in Israel. "They kind of migrated back and forth between Israel and Egypt, and even though those two places are of different religions, they had it worked out that it was cool for these people to do that," Johnston says. "There are a lot of boundaries in modern life, and they’ve been able to maintain their lifestyle. So that song just kind of came from that idea of that freedom and what if you could find that freedom in your own life." "Dragonfly," originally performed live as "Mortal," makes liberal use of the band’s familiar "syllalabic" in place of language–words tend to get in the way of emotion, Johnston says–to create childlike images about holding onto dreams. "The Rock with Wings" was inspired by Johnston’s tour with his wife of the American Southwest. Based on the Navajo beliefs about Shiprock, the concept for the song sat in Johnston’s mind for about six years before making it into the recording studio. "You picture a rock or a stone as something that’s immovable. And so the ‘rock with wings’–you got a very cool picture thinking of that," he says. "‘The rock with wings’ would be a good phrase to sum up the whole album–something stable and sturdy and grounded that’s not afraid to fly." With tracks like "Dragonfly" and "Hummingbird," wings and flight are a repeated theme on the CD. Is this a Freudian musical slip revealing a desire to quit touring for a while and do some honest-to-goodness traveling? "The underlying element of pursuing hope is what this album is about, and the wing theme wasn’t an intentional thing," Johnston says. "It’s kind of as the music came about and what we were dealing with in our personal lives." And personal lives are a big deal for Johnston and the other members of the band. "We all have an intense passion for music and an intense passion for who we are," Johnston explains. "When you’re in a group like that it kind of makes the whole rock-and-roll thing a little easier, because you’ve got a bunch of other people who have similar views to you. Everybody’s going through the same things. You know–we’re not home, we’re on the road, but everything else that we love is at home." Rather than heading out for long tours, they opt to go on "mini-tours" in order to be home more frequently. "Everybody’s got families and stuff, and so we’d go out for a couple weeks and be home for a week and go out for a week and be home for a few days," Johnston says. "It worked really well for us, and it kept people fresh and happy about playing." For the past couple of months, the band has been working to adjust to the unexpected departure of keyboardist Brad Chestnut, who moved to Chicago. "We’ve been learning the new songs from the album, figuring out how we’re going to perform them live and figuring out how we’re going to go on as a five-piece," Johnston says. "We had to go back and relearn the old stuff as a five-piece, too. So all of that stuff is new for us to play." But is there more room on the bus? "There’s more room on the bus and more room on stage–and fewer drivers on the bus," Johnston says. Meanwhile, the band is excited to be bringing new tunes and a new show to Boulder. "The biggest payment you can get is when you’re out playing and you meet people and hear the effect that music has on them," Johnston says. "Songs have a big effect on people’s lives, and I hope our music can continue to keep growing and changing and encouraging people." Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com |
The first thing you notice about Janah is the music. Infectious rock ’n‘ roll flavored with rhythms and instruments from around the world, it’s ardent and sensual enough to constitute an act of foreplay.
