Milagro Saints’ folk-rock ideal; Bonnie Raitt’s new soul
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. August 20, 1998) -- Folk-rock is a catch-all term that has been bandied about for 35 years or so. Ever since Bob Dylan plugged in his electric guitar, it's been applied to music that has one foot in the lyrical traditions of folk and one in the rhythmic terrain of rock 'n' roll.

As such, it's an inexact term at best. Folk music traditionally connotes that which stems from an oral, populist tradition, thus excluding the original work of contemporary singer-songwriters. And if rock denotes anything, it is the primacy of the electric guitar above all other, whereas many so-called folk-rock groups favor amplified acoustic guitars for their folk-like textures.

And over in England, the folk-rock movement of the early-'70s hewed to a much more literal fusion of folk and rock, with groups like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span grafting traditional folk songs into rock-like settings.

Somewhere amongst all these varied approaches, there has got to be a genuine folk-rock fusion worthy of the term.

In its combination of Fairport-like English sonorities, Dylanesque populist grit and Van Morrison-style urban soul, Milagro Saints, a Raleigh, N.C.-based quintet -- may just have stumbled upon the elusive formula -- the Holy Grail of folk-rock, if you will.

The Milagro Saints -- who kicked off last June's rain-soaked Berkshire Mountain Music Festival in Lanesboro -- return to the Berkshires for an encore appearance, this time with shelter from the storm at the historic Dream Away Lodge in Becket, on Friday, Aug. 21, at 7. Berkshire-based singer-songwriter Robby Baier -- who provides a lethal dose of soulful folk-rock himself -- will warm up the crowd for the Saints. For information and reservations for the show at this limited-capacity venue call 496-9602.

“I think it's a question of the people who came together,” said Stephen Ineson, guitarist, vocalist and main songwriter for Milagro Saints, in a recent phone interview from the band's rehearsal space in the triangle area of North Carolina.

“We were all kind of flowing in the same direction,” said Ineson, the sole Englishman of the group, who went to art school in Reading before joining the Jack Rubies, which toured with They Might Be Giants and had two critically-acclaimed albums on TVT Records in the early-'90s.

“I recently found out that Robert /Shi, the drummer, likes everything Joni Mitchell ever did, which is probably unusual for a drummer,” said Ineson. “And Ernie /Jamison, the bassist,/ came out with the revelation that he really loves Neil Young.

“So the rhythm section -- the guys you might think would be more into something not singer-songwriting, because it's not really about them -- they're into it too. So it's maybe fortuitous. Our level of awareness was such that we were able to gravitate toward each other. We don't, I think, want to play rock music as such.”

In fact, you could hardly come up with a more diverse crew of musicians than the members of Milagro Saints. Joyce Bowden, who shares vocal duties with Ineson and plays clarinet, lap-steel guitar and percussion, was a member of Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison's group Casual Gods, and ecorded with David Byrne and other former Talking Heads in Tom Tom Club.

Keyboardist/mouth harpist Lee Kirby is a former Chicago blues-band promoter, who met Ineson in a club on New York's Upper West Side, and invited him to come to an open jam at his rooftop apartment in midtown Manhattan, also frequented by Bowden.

Thus began the musical partnership that would become Milagro Saints. The three of them moved to Raleigh, where they met Shi and Jamison. Shi was a graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music and a former member of Boston-based rock band Talking to Animals and Interscope recording artists Dish. Jamison is a graduate of the Musician's Institute in Hollywood and a key member of Raleigh's thriving club scene.

The five began playing together and establishing the group's unique sound, which has variously been described as “chamber-pop,” “modern folk” and “folksy pop.” The group was signed to the Cary, N.C.-based MoodFood label, which releases its first album, the eponymously-titled “Milagro Saints,” this week.

The album is a gorgeous stew of soulful ballads and mid-tempo rockers, as if Bob Dylan were the lead singer of Fairport Convention singing Van Morrison songs. The songs tend to have a mystical, spiritual bent -- with titles such as “Mystic Elevator,” “Road to Heaven,” and “What Do You Believe In?” -- which Ineson attributes to a kind of post-cynical outlook.

“I went from being very pessimistic and quite cynical and I had a kind of turnaround,” he said. “The music business itself makes you very depressed and cynical. I had a realization I could turn it all around.”

For more info, check out www.moodfood.com .

Bonnie and Jackson, together again

“Let's run naked through these city streets,” sings Bonnie Raitt on the first song of her latest album, “Fundamental” (Capitol), a funky, sexy, stripped-down brew co-produced by Raitt, Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. After four Don Was-produced albums whose pop sheen brought Raitt unprecedented album sales and a closet full of Grammys, the Los Angeles-bred, blues-loving daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt opted for Froom/Blake's more minimalist textures, bringing her blues-based approach closer to its roots in the Delta. Thus, on her version of J.B. Lenoir's classic, “Round and Round,” an all-acoustic track featuring just guitar, bass and vocals and treated vocals, Raitt sounds like she's phoning in her part from a riverbank in Mississippi.

While the album includes songs written by Willie Dixon, John Hiatt, Paul Brady, Dillon O'Brian, Joey Spampinato of NRBQ and members of Los Lobos, Raitt's own songwriting continues to grow and improve. “Spit of Love” is one of her trademark pop/R&B burners, here given a dark, moody twist by Froom's distorted keyboards.

Raitt's concert at Tanglewood next Monday, Aug. 24, at 7 (call 1-800-274-8499 for tickets) unites her with singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, whose appearance is billed as a “special acoustic performance.” The two go back together at least as far as the '70s, when Raitt recorded songs by Browne and the two combined forces to power the M.U.S.E/No Nukes all-star benefit concerts.

Browne himself seems to be in a holding pattern. Last year he released a greatest-hits collection, “The Next Voice You Hear” (Elektra), including songs such as “Doctor My Eyes,” “The Pretender” and “Somebody’s Baby,” tunes that never go out of style. Although it's not certain that Raitt and Browne will appear onstage together, fans can only hope that extra sparks will be lit by some Raitt-Browne duets at some point during the evening.

If you would like to purchase The Milagro Saints' latest CD on-line, please click on the SoundStone logo to the right.