Sprout
When The Silence Breaks

As I listen to this brand spankin’ new Sprout CD I hear a band that is at a creatively zenith and despite its long-time jam band status has melded diverse forms of music that incorporate elements of blues, jazz, reggae, rock, country, jug band and show tunes. Incredibly, they’ve written tight arrangements in neatly crafted and concise songs that retain a traditional structure (no song is over 8 minutes) yet somehow allow space for extended instrumental excursions.

The recording captures the Sprout sound - the incredible interplay between the instruments, the phenomenal work of the Nyquist rhythm section, the tonal purity and fat sound of Aaron Johnson’s lead guitar, Weisenbach’s imaginative two handed flight over them 88’s and the layered instrumentation and multiple signature changes that give you an idea of what their live show is all about. The music is engineered and recorded in a lusty perfection with a crisp full sound that accentuates the brilliant musicianship and three part vocal harmonies that recall the Band and the Grateful Dead. Aaron Johnson’s distinctive soulful singing is both smoky mellow and raspy; mature and tongue-in-cheek.

These cats have a definite point-of view and a great sense of humor. This disc is just plain fun and has a Govt. Mule vibe that gets Paul Koch skipping & jumping around like crazy until he finds a patch of wildwood weed which he collects into a big bouquet that he lights up and smokes in deeply held yet mindful breaths until he collapses into an hysterical fit of laughter and tears; his prone body becomes motionless and unresponsive as the sweet tangy brush fire aroma wafts around his lifeless corpse like an early morning fog. But that’s another story.

Read on and listen…

Everything and In Between

A blues shuffle with an oompa riff right out of Laurel & Hardy Movie and a close cousin to Kama Sutra Time by Flo & Eddie. It is sentimental ode to your lovey dovey with old fashioned lyrics like sweetie, darling and cutie that come off as endearing and avoids veering off into hackneyed drivel in favor of real down-home romance. My honey she’s into fancy clothes
My honey hates candy up the nose
Likes to play in rain
can’t complain about a thing
Honey she’s a reaping what she sows

My baby she’s just so long and lean
My baby she’s hopeful and serene
Hates to wait around
when the band plays out of town
Honey’s everything and in between

Everything and In between
was the best I’ve ever seen
Peace of mind not far behind
Oh, that is what I mean

Gervalia

A slowed down reggae that speaks to a longing and loneliness that is part and parcel of being a road weary musician or anyone whose lived long enough to experience the joys and sorrows that life will show us. The music has a laid-back vibe that masks the complex emotions in the lyrics. There is something that runs very deep here. In the coda Weisenbach’s gorgeous descending keyboard run segues into a full bodied guitar solo right out of the Brian May catalog. The understated accompaniment provides the perfect emotional landscape for the song. Brian Johnson’s lyrics are brilliant mix of acceptance and regret.

Seven hours on the road
Three more to go
Seven angels on the wind
Saw the man within

Yeah, we were bound for glory
And our hearts could see
Build our house upon a rock
In Nashville Tennessee

Never a doubt when it comes to freedom
Riding on top of the world
Time to us that is worth changing
Standing on the music we built

I remember playing windows
Never looked so sad
Whenever that smoky room filled
It didn’t seem so bad

The End of Alchemy

A Zappa-inspired half sung and deeply intoned intro…

I think I hear your footsteps in my heart
I know it’s your car that’s driving by
I sit around and wait to hear you roar
In the morning when I wake it’s still just me
that segues in a classic Sprout shift in key and tempo to a hard rockin’ monster track complete with an extended guitar solo, feedback, a screaming power organ backdrop and an incredible baseline that thumps, pops and anchors this Wildman metaphor for love, sex and intimacy.
The song ends in a wondrous extended jam that gives Aaron Johnson room to breathe fire and rock his ass off. It has an unexpected false ending that leads up to a big bang that is both exciting and hilarious... Is it just the chemicals mixing up above…
Or is it love?

Reaction Time

The lonely echoed strum of the guitar is joined by a simple riff on the keys. The song starts out in slow waltz time giving it a definite edge. What goes on here…and existential void, a dance to save mankind and mother earth? The sweet message is there if you pay attention. I hope it’s not too late…

Grinded with wood and with water
Always beneath you is me
You take for granted
My role on this planet

But I swear that I’ll make you see
A seed like a word in its rhythm
Would open and so far was heard
A far away chatter
The glorious laughter
The tree, the rain and the whistle of a bird

And oh
I am alive
I see
Feeling I strive
To improve my reaction time

Alibi

Is a rockin’ New Orleans swamp blues along the lines of Lazy Lester’s Sugar Coated Love with a little goodtime jug band thrown-in for good measure. It hops along at a leisurely pace with a cool accapella break toward the coda and an exuberant mid-vocal-scream that gives you the idea that these cats love to keep you off balance, to expect the unexpected. The Sprout universe is proceeding at warp speed, mining the unknown and unusual in the midst of all our daunting normalcy.

Find me an alibi for my crime
My heart’s not a prison cells
Doin’ time, time, time

And it’s not the shape I’m in
Or the places we’ve been
But Honey where did we begin

Find me an alibi for my crime
My hearts not a prison cells
Got me doin time, time, time

It’s not your love divine
Or the passing of time
But Honey, when will you be mine

Get Over You

The harp, bass and keys join together in circular free-form riffs that segues to a funky wah-wah, spacey keys and Aaron Johnson’s angry soulful vocal. This is a break-up song filled up with extraordinary sorrow. The anger is an escape emotion that inhibits experiencing shame and sorrow. Sprout uses several metaphors for recovering from the pain of a failed relationship:

Gonna Get over you
Faster than a Shooting star
Faster than and blue race car
Faster than a hurricane
Faster than “I feel the same way too”

Cos Now I now
Now I know
Just who you are

Not only is he getting over her, he’s doin’ it real fast. But at the very end, a muffled voice betrays his doubt and his very real pain. He says everything is OK - but its not…B-I-tch.

Longway

This is an operatic opus with several distinct movements. Weisenbach’s piano is front and center. The message is obscured through paradox and the dialectic of multiple truths and the search for a middle ground. Sprout makes the most of its strong unison singing and jazz piano before Johnson gets it centered with a tasty full-bodied guitar interlude. The sound ultimately builds and the tempo increases with Weisnbach switching to organ and his soaring Winwood-like riff joins Johnson’s metal guitar workout to bring the song to a satisfying conclusion.
“If you endure it all
Your weakness will be your strength”

Mule

This is an up-tempo honky tonk two-step straight out of the Long Ranch Saloon. Miss Kitty is backin’ it up for Marshall Matt Dillon whose smiling ’large and hitching up his trousers as he keeps the peace in Dodge City with trusty Festus by his side. It opens with a low saloon barrelhouse piano riff that keeps a steady syncopation throughout this goodtime country hoedown.

I won’t marry trouble
I won’t marry sin
But whose to say what we learned along the way
I won’t be taken in

If the time is right
Ain’t gonna sleep on it tonight
Get your ass to the show
If it takes too long you already have a home
You’ll be sleeping alone

Willow Stream

The track opens with the sound of mushy footsteps in the Rain Forest evoking images of the sweet moist grasses, close your eyes you can smell the wildflowers, feel the slight breeze jostling the majestic forest… feel the warmth of the sun. This lovely earth anthem unfolds gently and is sung perfectly by Aaron Johnson. The understated yet brilliant vocal harmonies help give the song its heavenly soaring landscape. It is a call to arms that heralds the beauty of our planet, a beauty to protect and preserve.

Tame the few that ride the cloud
And rained upon the shore

Will you ask them what they know
Their eyes may tell a lie
But the spirits speak the truth

This is one of the most beautiful gospel songs I’ve ever heard – an extraordinary achievement. Breathe in the air
Happiness is free

Shining Light

A calypso road song well suited for taking the top down on you ’69 Mustang just to make it happen, baby. Let the wind brush you hair back until you look permanently freaked out but oh, lord it feels so free. The Sprout boys construct this perfect metaphor for our lives. They remind us that no matter what you do, you reach your destination just the same and that this crazy life is not a race, slow down and smell the roses. Mahavishnu Aaron Johnson is jammin’ throughout the song, accenting full-bodied notes and flying up and down the neck. Steve Nyquist holds it all together through all the abrupt time changes and instrumental excursions – he’s a great drummer with an exceptionally large drum stick.

Won’t Be the Same

This is a faux 12-bar blues played loose, boozy and tongue in cheek but its really an exercise of “kidding in the square” - there’s a message underneath the goofin’. The singer is able to stand outside his worries and sing it soulful and strong. The lyrics give it away:

Well, I won’t be the same this time
Hang my life out on a long frayed piece of twine
And my words for the ears of an unknown passerby
No it won’ be the same this time

Well the sun will not blind my eye
No the moon to determine my time
And the way that I feel in the morning when I rise
No it won’t be the same this time

More

The closer is a doozy…a funky Motown tribute/spoof trading verses like the Temptations singing in turn a high falsetto to a deep bass – Nyquist’s Eddie Kendricks to Johnson’s Melvin Franklin. The funky soul shifts suddenly to a brief interlude, a slower tempo and 3-part country harmonies, and shits just as suddenly to a reggae –infused refrain. This is Sprout at its playful best – they’re just messin’. It sounds at first like a throwaway but its actually a defining piece of music with a message of recovery – rising above the pain and finding that crystal shore of warmth, peace and beauty

Welcome to the universe of Sprout
Everything is sacred, nothing is serious

Peace
Bo White