Planting the Seeds and Reviving Dead Roots

It was another successful run out to Vancouver and back in September and October, albeit with more snow than I've ever seen on a Western Tour in the Fall. I missed the 30 cm dumping that Calgary received by a day, but managed to enjoy a six hour drive through a snowstorm in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Two tracks for the tires to fit into with a foot of snow in between and on either side. An adventure with the all seasons on. Kept my distance from the cars fish-tailing in front of me and all was good.

Thanks to everyone who hosted and promoted shows, shared the stage with me, fed and watered me, and gave me a place to lay my weary bones. I couldn't do it without you!

Dead Root Revival
Many musical happenings in November, kicking off with the first shows for a new band. From the ashes of what was the Tom Savage Trio, comes Dead Root Revival. A change in band name and a change in musical direction. Leaving the Country-Rock sound that fans became familiar with from The County Line (2008), and focusing more on a hard edge Blues sound, with elements of Rock and Jazz, and introducing more instrumental numbers into the set list.

We head out on the road for a few shows this weekend in Simcoe, Sarnia, and Toronto. Check out the facebook page for event details.

Another reason for the name change is to allow us to have more than three people in the band. I'm hoping that Dead Root Revival will end up being a music collective, where musicians will come to share the stage from time-to-time, and contribute to the material. The first opportunity for this will be when Tony Silvestri joins us on keyboards for our show at The Wooden Boat Shop in Gananoque on Saturday, November 24th.

Plant The Seeds Initiative
To celebrate 10 years of HomeGrown, with the support of The Community Foundation for Kingston & Area, and other sponsors, free and discounted concerts, valuable tutorials, studio time, professional recording and videoing of your band, jamming opportunities, craft beer and more is happening on Nov 8-10th. The Plant the Seeds Initiative (www.planttheseeds.ca) includes:

Nov 8th-Screening of “Live In Kingston” with pre-screening stage performance by Paper Ladies

Nov 8-10th- Downtown Jams- Country/Blues/Classic Rock /Celebration of Joe’s Music/Celtic/Community Sing-Alongs

Nov 10th- Concert featuring Tom Savage, Needless Love Endorsement, The Wilderness, and Major Love

Nov 10th (mostly)- Musician Tutorials covering voice, sound engineering, business skills, songwriting, home studio recording, equipment, and live video and audio recording of local bands and free studio time.

I'm excited to be taking part in "The Music Biz" workshop on Saturday afternoon, and performing (with full band) at the concert finale. If you're a Kingston musician ( and you don't have a gig) or a music supporter, you need to be at this show! Come celebrate what, we as a community, have accomplished over the past decade. When I travel around the country and tell people about Joe's M.I.L.L., they are truly amazed (and envious) of what we have here in Kingston. Cheers to that! Let's party!!

Download 'The County Line' For Free
The Tom Savage Trio may be no more, but the music lives on...even if it is out of print. I sold out of the Overdrive Express album while on tour (contemplating another pressing), and I sold out of The County Line long ago ( no plans for another pressing). Recently, however, I've added The County Line to NoiseTrade for free download ( with an option to leave a tip for Joe's M.I.L.L. which I do encourage). Head over and download your copy of the album today!

Review of 'The County Line' from Americana Roots
Kingston, Ontario’s Tom Savage fourth studio album called The County Line recently founds its way to my ears. Even though it is a 2008 release it deserves your attention if you haven’t heard it. This is the first release under the Tom Savage Trio name. The trio consists of Tom Savage – guitar, vocals and mandolin; Geoff Chown – bass; and Sandy Mackenzie -drums, backing vocals. Think of them as a modern day Americana power trio, at least on this disc. While previous releases from Tom (solo) have been more acoustic, this disc is plugged in and rowdy!

There are nine high octane cuts on the disc, which opens in a hurry with Leaving In A Hurry. The highlight of the disc is the title track, with a guitar attack I imagine must be great to hear live! Perhaps speaking of himself, or maybe some of his obvious influences (Neil Young) is the line from the track Old Rock ‘N’ Rollers:
“Old rock ‘n’ rollers never die, they just keep rollin’ on”

The only time they slow down for a breath is on Tired Old Cliche. Then its back to full speed and on the road for 48 Hours. Then like a good power trio, they end with the lengthy tune Arizona, which features a long power chord fade out ending that even does fade out and return! I held up my lighter when it was done!!

If you like your Americana amped up, i.e. The Bottle Rockets or Drive-By-Truckers then you are sure to like this disc, yet another stellar release from our neighbors to the North! -Don Zelazny