TWISTED ROOTS

Driftwood digs deep with a rootsy new record and a slew of Syracuse shows

By Jessica Novak Michael Davis Photos

It's Saturday, Sept. 17, at Last Daze of Summer, the final Sterling Stage event of 2011. It’s cold outside, a chilly 45 degrees, but the festival managed to pull about 1,100 campers and the energy is high. Driftwood, a four-, sometimes three-piece, Americanaroots band from Binghamton, was scheduled to play the side stage from 11 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., but as usual, the band has run over its set time.

They can’t help but feed off the excitement of the audience. The minutes pass as they push through song after song and the crowd begs for more every time they try to step away from the microphones—one, two, three, four and five times, finally stepping off the stage, playing right in, among the crowd by the end of the set. The musicians’ fingers are freezing as they press them hard against strings on a guitar, banjo, violin and upright bass but they continue. The sun is rising and it’s nearing a blurry 5 a.m. when the band finally allows the marathon of music to end.

“It’s the kind of thing that only happens once every four years,” says Sterling Stage sound engineer Jeremy Huntley. He was running sound for the 11 p.m. set when Sterling Stage founder and producer Eric McElveen asked if he’d be willing to go for the long haul. Huntley knew exactly what he meant and said yes. He’s not sorry that he did.

“It was magic. Pure magic,” Huntley reports. “Everything jelled that night: the audience, the music, the band. It was more than amazing.”

The band—guitarist-vocalist Dan Forsyth, banjo player-vocalist Joe Kollar, violinistvocalist Claire Byrne and bassist Jon Doll (who was unavailable for the interview and photo shoot in Cortland on Sept. 30)—think back on that night at Sterling laughing as they relive it.

“It was so cold and we’re like, ‘OK, we’ll keep movin’, keep chuggin’ along,” Forsyth remembers.

“Who’s got the whiskey?” Kollar shouts. “The fingers, that was the tough part,” Forsyth says painfully.

“I had the cut-off gloves,” Byrne chimes in.

“I felt like a bad ass. It was fun, though, a lot of fun.”

This banter reflects the natural chemistry, energy and fast pace of the group. Forsyth tends to lay down the facts while Kollar and Byrne add the details and humor, all of them smiling, joking and agreeing that since the addition of Byrne in 2008 and the release of 2009’s Rally Day (independent), the momentum of the band has picked up, and the reason is clear.

“We’ve been working a lot harder is what I’ve noticed,” Byrne says. “We play a lot more shows, do a lot more traveling.”

With their independent sophomore album A Rock and Roll Heart due out on Tuesday, Nov. 1, and a trio of Syracuse dates that includes a follow-up release party at the Westcott Theater, 524 Westcott St., on Dec. 7, Driftwood is becoming more loved by the Salt City with every rowdy, foot-stomping, violin-shredding performance.

There’s a reason people won’t let them off the stage.

Growing Pains

Driftwood, with Forsyth, 33, when-available bass player Jon Doll, 30, Kollar, 28 and Byrne, 25, has been in the gradual making for 13 years. Forsyth, Kollar and Doll met at Chenango Forks High School in Binghamton and all shared a common bond in their love of classic rock. They started a band called The D Side and played out at bars despite the fact that Kollar was only 14 at the time.

“Little Joe, we were tryin’ to sneak beer,” Forsyth says. “We were all underage, but we were tryin’ to sneak beer.”

They cut their teeth, underage and trying to learn and perform the classics of rock by legends like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin wherever bar owners would have them.

But things became more complicated after high school. Forsyth moved to Vail, Colo., for a time and in 2005 Kollar went on to study contemporary writing and production at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Doll went to the University of Connecticut for his doctorate and Forsyth later enrolled at Broome Community College. Each bandmate continued playing with different groups and getting together when they could, but they also gravitated toward a different kind of music.

The group notes that around the time the Coen Brothers movie O, Brother Where Art Thou? was released in 2000, they noticed a renewed interest in acoustic music cropping up in modern culture. They became more interested in the genre. As they discovered more music in the same vein, specifically albums including Shady Grove (Acoustic Disc) with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman for Forsyth and Eric Clapton’s Unplugged (Reprise) for Kollar, their attitudes shifted.

“I remember that was a big one for me,” Kollar says. “I remember being like, ‘Man, Eric Clapton, one of my idols, shreddin’ guitar. . . and he’s sittin’ down with an acoustic.’ It was just so beautiful, honest.”

With that music in mind, Forsyth and Kollar started using the name Driftwood as a duo and invited musician friends from Berklee as well as Doll when they could. But with musicians spread across several states, the lineup never took off.

It wasn’t until 2008, after Kollar had graduated from Berklee and Driftwood was preparing for a short New York tour that things fell in line. They were getting ready to hit the road with mutual friend, Nate Marshall, part of the folk duo Nate and Kate out of Ithaca. Marshall mentioned that a violinist, Byrne, would be playing a few songs with his duo on the tour, and asked Forsyth and Kollar if they had heard of her. They hadn’t at the time, but Marshall didn’t mind push ing her their way and asked if she could fit in Driftwood’s car for the trip.

“As soon as she got in the car she had a 12-pack of PBR {Pabst Blue Ribbon} and we started talking about music,” Forsyth says. “And. . . ” “She’s cool,” Kollar finishes. Byrne ended up playing every show on the tour with Forsyth and Kollar and not long after, they asked if she’d continue to be part of the band.

Kollar recreates the scene with a sheepish glance at Byrne: “Do you wanna be in our band? You kinda are. . . ” In 2009, the group recorded their first album in Kollar’s basement studio, but the process was tedious. Byrne was still studying audio engineering at SUNY Fredonia and Doll was away at UConn pursuing his doctorate in chemistry. This meant that Forsyth and Kollar essentially had to do things in reverse.

“The bass was the last thing to go,” Kollar says. “It was all tracked out and done separately. We didn’t record all together or anything. Vocals separate and bass was last which is kinda backwards, but it worked out great.”

The resulting record, Rally Day, captured the group well and gave them something to carry along and disperse as they increased their touring schedule, stopping at the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in 2006, 2010 and 2011, and eventually embarked on a national tour in 2010.

They started planning the six-week statehopping trip in February and left in late August, road-tripping down through West Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado, all the way up to Oregon, stopping at national parks to camp in between.

Although they had plenty of planned gigs, the group found that they ended up playing far more impromptu performances, which often became their most successful moments. Whether they had sound issues in Boulder or were double-booked in Santa Fe, N.M., they’d make the most of whichever city they were playing themselves through by pulling out jams in the streets and on college campuses, something that has crucially shaped their sound and stage presence. It’s where they draw their addictive, audience-engulfing energy.

“I remember we went to Boston one time and we played this one song, ‘Ode to the Pretty Girl,’ a really loud and fast fiddle tune because it was the only way we’d make money,” Forsyth says. “You play a slow song where you’re singin’ low and you make no money whatsoever because nobody’s listenin’. But if she {Byrne} gets that fiddle goin’ like {Forsyth imitates a fiddle}, and we play really loud and he {Joe} would stomp on the box, people would be like, ‘Whoa, what’s goin’ on?’” “Do some hootin’ and hollerin’,” Byrne adds.

Set Adrift

The group is always sure to bring that same excitement to their booked gigs, enough that they drew the attention of Brooklyn producer Bryan Kane of Three Egg Studios when they played The Living Room in Brooklyn. “He approached us one night and said, ‘Listen, I love what you guys are doing. I’m a musician, too. I’d love to record your songs,’” Forsyth says.

That was back in 2009, before the group had embarked on their national tour. They didn’t follow up on the offer until January 2011 when they finally visited Kane for two days. The band went in thinking they’d record a song, maybe two, but ended up leaving with the whole album in the bag.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Forsyth says. “And when we got there it was beautiful beyond anything we would ever expect.

Then we realized they kinda had it in mind. They knew what they were gonna be doing. They had a room down there. They wanted to do it all live. They wanted to really just have the room shine. So before we knew it, it was us doing live takes. We went through one day and they were like, ‘We got the album.’” “Like a blur,” Kollar says. “It was a whirlwind,” Byrne agrees. Much like a typical Driftwood weekend spent traveling from Sterling Stage to Williamsport, Penn., back up to Binghamton, it’s all a whirlwind, but one that leaves things better in its wake.

The group is visibly excited about the new album and seems even more excited about the steady stream of upcoming local shows to promote it. For starters, Driftwood will play on Friday, Oct. 28, 8 p.m., at the Center for the Arts, 72 S. Main St., Homer, with The Blind Spots and Grain Elevator. Tickets are $10. For more information, visit www.center4art.org or call (607) 749-2787.

They also have Syracuse dates set for Nov. 9 at Al’s Wine and Whiskey, 321 S. Clinton St., and Nov. 19 at the Westcott Theater, opening for Donna the Buffalo, plus another Westcott gig on Dec. 7. And there will be CD release parties planned in Rochester, Ithaca, Binghamton and New York City. Visit www. driftwoodtheband.com for more details.

The band has especially noticed the Syracuse audience reaction. “The last show that we played up at Al’s {Wine and Whiskey}, they always do the Sunday-night thing,” Forsyth explains. “Every time we play there we’re just toast from the weekend and everybody’s a zombie. We’re lookin’ around, we’re all set up, ready to go and all of a sudden, you know, it started to fill up and there’s more people. I remember looking over at you {Joe} at one point, and being like, ‘What’s going on?’” “Right? Like, I think they came to see us,” Kollar replies.

With every show, more ears eager for the rootsy, hootin’, hollerin’ sound of Driftwood come out to listen. The band has also noticed the mixture of genre-lovers they seem to attract.

“Not to be stereotypical, but there’s people with tattoos, big things in their ears, and they’re lovin’ it,” Kollar describes. “And then the guy with the cowboy hat sittin’ there, too, and then young kids doin’ cartwheels and old people in the back smiling. It really cuts across. I’m not sure what it is exactly.”

Forsyth picks up the thought: “I think it’s a time thing. It’s what’s going on in music. There’s a lot of different music out there; it’s an acceptance thing. A metal head, for instance, or a person really into shredding might see Claire up there shredding the violin and could totally relate to it, even though it’s typically thought of like a country bluegrass instrument. What we do is not traditional.”

As Forsyth trails off, suddenly a little stumped at how to describe their music further, Kollar steps up to solve the mystery. “It’s energy,” he proclaims. “There’s a lot of energy that I think people respond to. It’s just the sheer kinda thing of what we’ve got going.”

That energy is addicting and the growing audiences in Syracuse and elsewhere are living proof: They’ve got people hooked on the Driftwood drug, and they can’t help but keep giving the goods.

Driftwood. A Rock and Roll Heart (Independent). It’s a common trick among acoustic/roots bands to skip some of the typical complications of studio recording. Rather than painstakingly layering tracks and adjusting every vocal imperfection, some groups opt to keep the personality-filled tempo sways, the notes that are just shy of the mark and little laughs in the background, all in exchange for a sound that is designed to capture the band’s raw essence.

Binghamton band Driftwood, featuring guitarist-vocalist Dan Forsyth, banjo player-vocalist Joe Kollar, violinist-vocalist Claire Byrne and bassist Jon Doll, made that change in recording style for A Rock and Roll Heart. Unlike their indie debut album, 2009’s Rally Day, which was recorded layer by layer, the four-piece’s sophomore effort jumps right into what they do best, as they deliver a vigorous live performance. Although the bass could use a little strengthening, as it sometimes falls out beneath the bouncing banjo and the emotion-charged vocal harmonies, the album manages to capture both the live moment and the personality of Driftwood.

It’s an easily-ear-catching listen from start to finish with wise lyrics in songs including “Love Is” as Forsyth sings, “Love is not a book meant to keep you in line/ Love is not a law for you to break or live by/ Love is not a word you should throw around/ No, love is not a stone for you to cast when you’re down.”

Byrne steals the show on several tracks with her Boyd Tinsley-like fiddle and doublestop abilities, but blows everything out of the water when she gets dark on the upgraded version of their song “Annie,” also a track on Rally Day. (The group also demonstrates their bounding growth since 2009 by rerecording the song.) Showing her versatility by taking the violin from upbeat on bluegrass to sinister and gritty, Byrne leaves listeners anxious for another trip to the dark side.

Driftwood’s energy, talent and chemistry are captured in A Rock and Roll Heart, to be released on Tuesday, Nov. 1, although it is most effective at whetting an appetite for more. For more on Driftwood, see the story on page 16.

—Jessica Novak