the hum / By Bob Doran

Embedded in a Rhythmic Universe

The Rhythm Devils, plus Ben Taylor, Absynth and the Folklife Fest

(July 15, 2010)  Once upon a time there was a band called the Grateful Dead. Ahead of the curve in many ways, they became the most successful touring band of all time and invented the very notion of the jamband. Legendary sets spun into extended improvisation that would shift from interstellar excursions by guitarist Jerry Garcia and the band into drum jams by Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, dubbed by Jerry “The Rhythm Devils”.

“It originated in the ’70s,” said Hart, calling from 360 Studios, his laboratory/archive in Sonoma County. “The fans called it ‘Drums in Space.’ The origin was me and Bill playing freeform percussion duets.”   

Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, 1969 COURTESY OF ZOOOMABOOMA

GALLERY >

Fast-forward to a few years ago, post-Grateful Dead: Kreutzmann and Hart reunited briefly as The Rhythm Devils. “We went out as a rock ‘n’ roll band, kinda, for a very short tour, only 10 days. Now we’ve reconstituted the band and we’re going to play a lot more. We changed it again. We’ve always thought of the Rhythm Devils as a work-in-progress, so we wanted to take it to a different place with different people… We’re still concerned with rhythm, that’s the kind of devilish business we’re into. Not chaos, but rhythmic harmony and rhythmic entrainment. We want people to dance and have some fun.”

Hart explained the laws of entrainment, discovered by scientist Christian Huygens in the 1600s, which basically say that things tend to move together in rhythm. That’s part of Mickey’s mission: Get the world entrained.

“The whole world is in rhythm in certain ways. When it falls out of rhythm, like with the BP spill, there’s chaos, disaster. It’s always pulsing from chaos to order, chaos to order. The laws of entrainment apply to the whole universe… It’s a rhythmic universe — we’re embedded in it.”

This time out the Rhythm Devils include Nigerian talking drummer Sikiru Adepoju and percussive jam-master Keller Williams on guitar. “He’ll get a lot of guitar and singing time in,” said Hart.  “Then we have Davy Knowles who pulls a mean blues string, and he sings too. Andy Hess is on bass, he’s legendary, the baddest bottom in the West. It all flows right along. The possibilities are really exciting.”

The Rhythm Devils begin their summer-long tour here in Humboldt Friday night with a show at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. Be there and get yourself in rhythm.

Meanwhile, same night, over at the Arcata Playhouse, songwriters Ben Taylor and Katie Herzig play guitars and sing their songs. Up until a few years ago, Katie was front-woman for the Colorado folk-pop band Newcomers Home. Now she lives in songwriter-central, Nashville, where she’s been working on material for a new record. Her Wikipedia entry notes that she “was born in California to a musical family,” but she’s got nuthin’ on her touring partner. Ben, aka Benjamin Simon Taylor, is James Taylor’s son; Carly Simon is his mom. Of course he’s been making music all his life, mostly in the folk pop vein. Yes, he sounds kind of like his dad, but I’m sure he’d rather you judge him on his own merits. Don’t expect a bunch of covers. He writes his own songs.

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