 |
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
|
IMAGES
|
On Tour, Ragamuffin Style
The Ragamuffins' touring year, which ran through November, began August 30th when the band played at a fund raiser in Wichita, KS for the foundation with which the late Rich Mullins was deeply involved for the last three years of his life: Compassion International. Throughout the Fall of last year, the band played auditoria and church venues of all sizes, across the country, and to crowds of all sizes, but mostly between 1,000 and 2,000 people. "The beginning of the tour was booked before the release date for 'The Jesus Record' (June 30th)," says band member, Rick Elias. "So we really had no idea what to expect when we started." But the style of the concerts evolved quickly. "There's a deliberately loose, improvisatory vibe to the evening," Elias says. "We view a concert more as if we were participants in the event, rather than structuring it according to our expectations." Sometimes this loose, low-key approach eventuates in a few surprises: some musically invigorating, and some the band would rather not re-live, if they didn't have to... Take, for example, an Oct. night in Kansas City church. "It was a round room, all brick walls, with a high conical ceiling," says Elias. It was a packed house, but a "horrible room to play in," with ample opportunity for sound to bounce around, double back on itself, and generally muddy up the proceedings. "We have a very young 'crew,'" says Elias describing the tour's minimal 3-man tech-team. "They got seriously whipped by that room in Kansas City." But, he adds, they also learned some valuable lessons from that experience. "The following week we went into a room that was very similar," he says, "and this time, we came out on top. Our guys learned not to overwhelm a room like that, but to tame it with lower volume and speaker positioning. And the sound was incredible." The Kansas City concert was followed immediately by a poorly promoted gig in Jonesboro, AK, attended by a hundred people. "Nobody was there," says Elias. "But we sounded great... If people don't know you're playing, they won't come. It's sort of a general principle I've found," he says with typical good humor. A week later, the band played to a sellout crowd of 1300 in a theater at St. Mary's College, South Bend, IN. As the tour progressed, it gained momentum, with shows drawing more and more, either selling out venues, or close to it. An "adventure" at times, but Elias and the band take it in stride. By the Spring of '99, they expect to have lighting man and a full-time road manager, helping smooth out the rough spots. Meyer Sound The Ragamuffin tour was supported (and will be when it resumes) by Meyer Sound - Berkeley, CA the leading manufacturer of self-powered reinforcement loudspeakers in the world. The link-up between Meyer and the Ragamuffins can be traced directly to the long-time friendship between Meyer US Sales Manager - Greg McVeigh, and Elias. But the relationship goes beyond the personal to a compatibility of styles and outlook between the company (who for years was closely associated with Grateful Dead performances) and the band. "Meyer felt comfortable with our non-glitzy approach to the music and our performance style," said Elias, "We play real music. Dynamically we move from rock to quiet acoustic instrumentation, and this really helps display the broad range of musics that a Meyer PA system can handle." Practically speaking, the Meyer loudspeakers make set-up and tear-down for the band much easier. Because they contain their own amplifiers, the Meyer loudspeakers comprise a very compact power/delivery system; they take up less room than traditional amp/speaker systems, while at the same time weighing only marginally more than the roughly equivalent conventional speaker. And the relative simplicity - just plug them in, and they're ready to go - makes life much easier for the Ragamuffins' minimal crew. "The Meyer self-powered loudspeakers have a real stabilizing effect on the quality of our sound," says Elias, "no matter what venue we find ourselves in. I'm thrilled with their involvement." When the band resumes touring in the Spring, McVeigh and other Meyer personnel will accompany them, offering seminars on sound reinforcement to church music directors and others responsible for sound in the worship setting. Travel arrangements The tour is completely contained in a Penske truck and two vans. (Mullins hated the impersonality of tour buses and, so do all the band members, according to Elias.) The Ragamuffin band travels in one of the vans: Elias, drummer Aaron Smith, instrumentalist and vocalist Jimmy Abegg, bass player and vocalist Mark Robertson, and keyboard player Carl Herrgesell. The Kid Brothers, Mitch McVicker and one of the crew travel in the second van, and Jordan Richter (FOH engineer) and Matt Weeks (monitor engineer) in the truck with the gear. An inevitable element of tribute Elias is quite emphatic about the tour and "The Jesus Record" not being conceived of as a "tribute" to his late friend and bandmate, whom he regards as, "the most significant Christian artist to come along in the last 15 years." "The most common misconception about 'The Jesus Record' was that we were making a tribute album," he says. " We weren't. We made that record with the same motivation that Rich had. It's an album about Christ, and an exploration of faith. It's an entirely honest effort that stands out amid so many others that attempt to dilute the gospel until it becomes commercially acceptable in a very pop way." "Very early on, we realized that the tour would have to allow for an inevitable element of tribute, given the circumstances and expectations of Rich's fans, who know that music lost a remarkable person in Rich, someone very special." But music was a means to an end for Rich Mullins, a way to bring about change. And in that same sense, Elias stresses, the tour is less a "tribute" than a continuation of Rich's musical legacy, and the legacy of his life.
Equipment for the Ragamuffin Tour Rich Mullins recorded nine projects with Reunion Records. He was nominated for twelve Gospel Music Association Dove Awards throughout his career, and had many #1 radio hits. His church standard, "Awesome God," was voted in 1989 one of the top three songs of the decade according to the Christian Research Report. For the last decade of his life, Mullins' focus outside music was Compassion International (Colorado Springs, CO), an organization dedicated to food, shelter, health care, education, and Christian training to needy children with or without families around the world. In the last three years of his life, Mullins worked closely with Compassion's US ministry, and specifically with Native Americans in the southwest through the foundation's music program - an effort to which other Christian artists (Phil Keaggy, for one) have devoted their time and talent. The Jesus Record In September 1997, Mullins was in Chicago at the Roswell East Studio with Mark Robertson and Mitch McVicker and a few other members of the Ragamuffin Band recording a McVicker solo CD. After one particular vocal session, Robertson asked Mullins if he wanted to use the mic setup already in place to record a demo tape he had decided to prepare for Myrrh Records. The new album was to consist of songs specifically about Jesus. Some of these songs were included in the Ragamuffin's summer '97 tour. Mullins declined to record the demo tape of this project that day in the studio. Instead, he would sit in an abandoned church with a cheap cassette recorder and sing the nine songs he had prepared for the demo. Nine days later, on Sept. 19, Rich Mullins was killed in an car accident. Mitch McVickers, a Ragamuffin band member at the time and traveling with Mullins, was badly injured in the accident, but has since recovered. Following the accident Myrrh Records, Kid Brothers, and the Ragamuffins decided that Mullins' music needed to be heard. The recorded form it would take would turn out to be very different from most commercial releases, whether Contemporary Christian or any other pop music category. "The Jesus Record" (Executive Producer: Jim Chaffee, Judith Voltz; Producer: Rick Elias) was released on Myrrh Records, 6/30/98. It is a double CD: the first disc consists of the demo tape Mullins made alone in that abandoned church in Chicago; on the second disc, the Ragamuffin Band offers versions of the Mullins songs on disc one. They are joined by some of the top artists in Contemporary Christian music: Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Phil Keaggy, and Ashley Cleveland, who will accompany the band on one leg of its upcoming Spring tour. Since August of '98, the Ragamuffin Band has been touring in support of "The Jesus Record." The came in off the road in mid-November and will resume touring in the Spring of '99. The first single released from the album, "My Deliverer," hit number one in the nation the middle of August '98 on many charts, including local radio stations, 20: The Countdown Magazine, and CCM Update Online. The album has sold approx. 150,000 plus units to-date. Expectations are that it will go gold (250,000 units for a double album) by January, headed toward a goal of 300,000 total sales. November, 1998 |
FEATURED PRODUCTS Photo ID: |
|
|
Contact
Us | Terms of Use | Trademarks |
