John Brown's body lays collecting mold in a grave, but his soul goes marching on. Apparently, in the form of a progressive roots reggae band that will be performing Saturday night at The Tralf.
With at least four of nine members being New Yorkers, John Brown's Body has played in Buffalo many times. They've participated in Thursday in the Square concerts and played the Showplace Theater. Fans are in for a good time on Saturday night, as The Tralf is the band's favorite venue.
This band is a broad nonet composed of a horn section, guitars, bass, drums and two lead singers that sing about injustice and God, but manage to keep a positive vibe. They're immersed in world music, having gained experience at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival and the High Sierra Music Festival.
Kevin Kinsella is the chief songwriter, whose lyrics run the gamut from love and spirituality to social and political issues, but drummer Alex Beram explores the group's development from classic and rock reggae to rhythmic roots reggae.
"We're diversifying and lately we've been branching out and using more instruments, mixing up the instruments, using everyone to their full musical capacity," he said.
Reggae lovers may find John Brown's Body's cultural and spiritual focus comparable to that of the legendary Burning Spear, a strong leader in modern reggae. Kinsella pours forth some of his anger at social injustice in "This Is Not The End":
"On the walls of shopping malls/ I see the images of Bob Marley/ Still Roman soldiers are outside/ Slaying black youths of the future."
For those students who are not History majors, John Brown was a white man born in 1800 and he did not live the conventional West Virginian farmer's life in any way. He became a radical abolitionist and led the infamous raid against Harper's Ferry. He was hung in 1859 for murder, treason and inciting a slave riot.
Kinsella, singer, guitarist and a founding father of the band, selected the band's name out of respect for the historical figure. Kinsella was impressed that at a time when few white people were involved in abolition movements, this man who could have easily gone about his daily life, unaffected by slavery, chose to display his strong spiritual conviction and take a stand. Kinsella can identify with John Brown as a white New Yorker who plays reggae, a socially conscious music style.
"I saw John Brown as a paradigm and paradox of American history," said Kinsella.
Kinsella became a Bob Marley fan during his high school years and formed the band Tribulations in 1983. He split from them in 1994 and began working on new material that would create John Brown's Body's sound.
Beram also immersed himself in Jamaican music at a young age. By age 20, he was spending a great deal of time with people in the Caribbean culture, and they got together and drummed on weekends. His interest in Rastafarian lifestyle spring-boarded him into playing traditional rhythms on the Nyabingi drums and trombone. Beram's ascent into John Brown's Body was the realization of a dream. He was playing in a few local bands, opening for the group at one point, and was thrilled when he was invited to come on board.
However, not all the band members were disciples of Bob Marley during their formative years, indeed, they have a whole host of musical inspirations from Tony Collins to death metal. The best way to explain their complicated version of reggae is that they are inspired by authentic island beats, but at the same time they do not blatantly imitate or reference Jamaican music. Unlike well-known groups like The Wailers, who tend to stick to singing like Marley and performing his music, John Brown's Body has made a more independent impact on the reggae scene.
"We have drawn from that time period and music," says Beram, "But our last record is not in that context. You might not hear 1975. Earlier, you would definitely (hear it)."
"On any given night, you might hear sounds from a paired-down acoustic guitar to music directly influenced by Bob Marley. The amount to which it comes out is different," said Beram.
While never really emulating classic reggae, John Brown's Body certainly respects it. Adherents to the diluted style of synthesized radio-reggae, peppered with ska, should be cautioned that John Brown's Body, while incorporating some modern beats, largely performs roots reggae. Newer reggae bands have a much more forceful sound that is rather unlike John Brown's Body.
One might expect the group to have a predominantly Christian fan base thanks to their fair amount of religious lyrics. This is not so, according to Beram. Naturally, some people will be attracted and some people will be turned off, but he explained that the band neither has a large following of religious fans nor do they drive people away with their lyrics.
So, how does Kinsella feel about his success in the reggae world thus far?
"Let God's love reign/ And the love will pay the rent/ ...God give us shelter and protect us from all storm," he sings, "I would be a fool to say it is I/ Who have done this all myself."
