the hum / By Bob Doran

Reggae Dreaming

Woven Roots, blues times two and a naked cellist

(July 9, 2009)  The core members of local reggae band Woven Roots live way out in the hills above Willow Creek on a pair of homesteads where there is no cell phone reception. Connecting meant scheduling a time when the band’s guitarist, Gueren, could get to a hotspot on Friday Ridge.

Gueren discovered this remote area when he was attending HSU and working summers on trail crews in the Marble Mountain Wilderness. “I fell in love with the mountains out here and saved up money to buy property. I dreamed of living on the South Fork of the Trinity. Now I’ve found my place. Alex, the keyboard player, lives with me. Travis, the singer, lives just down the road. We live off the grid; we get all our power from a hydro-generator set in a creek. We get enough power to do band practice and even record out here.”

Woven Roots

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Guerin and Travis had gone to high school together in Carmel; when Travis moved to the Humboldt Hills they started jamming together in a reggae stylee, with Travis supplying lyrics.

“People seemed to like it, so we kept at it,” said Gueren. “At first it was just this dream. We didn’t know other musicians, or if we did they were involved in other projects. Then Travis went to a Soul Majestic show at Simon Legree’s [in Burnt Ranch]. Alex was filling in on keyboards; we got him to come out and practice with us. He had come out to Humboldt after going to Berklee School of Music in Boston on a scholarship to play marimba. I invited him to live at my place. Then all we needed was bass and drums.”

That involved some false starts, but judging from the music they laid down for their first album, the band has the reggae vibe down pat. Songs titles like “Be Mindful” and “End Racism” speak for themselves; they’re all about the living irie way. “We’re really passionate about the lifestyle we live,” said Guerin, “so that’s a big part of it. ‘Respect the Earth’ is one of our new songs. That pretty much sums it all up.”

More songs are in the works. “We have enough new ones for two or three more albums. All we need is the money and time to put another one together. We’re in the process of building a recording studio at my place, doing it all on our own.”

In the meantime, the EastHum band is playing all over the county. Friday they launch Arcata Mainstreet’s Picnics on the Plaza concert series with a show starting at 11:30 (in the morning). Saturday night they play for the first time at the Wave Lounge at Blue Lake Casino. Then next Saturday, July 18, they have their biggest gig to date, playing the 25th Anniversary Reggae on the River, where they share the bill with The Mighty Diamonds, Tanya Stephens, The Abyssinians, Etana, Majek Fashek, Queen Omega and Soul Majestic.

More reggae? The Itals, a trio of roots reggae pioneers who started playing in Jamaica before the Woven Roots crew was born, bring the irie vibes to the Red Fox Tavern Tuesday, July 14, along with special guest Joseph Israel.

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