This Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Pickle Barrel is going to be my favorite show of the year, and you get two great bands for the price of one. New Hampshire’s own Roots of Creation will be opening up for themselves, so to speak. Their other band, Grateful Dub, is the headliner of the evening. It’s called the “Grateful Roots Tour.” I’ve seen both bands, and this is a night not to be missed. Roots of Creation has been going on for 25 years, and Grateful Dub is relatively new, starting in 2018.
Last year, they separated the two projects. Dub member Bret Wilson said, “In 2018, we put out the album “Grateful Dub,” and it’s turned into its own thing. The original fans wanted more originals, and the Dead fans wanted more Dead. Before the pandemic, we had the idea of the Grateful Roots tour, and it was doing really well. We would do one set as Roots of Creation and then change into our musical costume and alter-ego, Grateful Dub. The tour was amazing; we were super-stoked, and then the pandemic hit. Dammit.”
Last year, they did some touring as ROC and some as GD, and this year they decided to combine them. Wilson said, “We open up for ourselves. We do 75 minutes of ROC originals. We’ve been putting out a lot of new music, so we mix it up with the new stuff and some B-sides and top it off with GD.
The band’s home base is New Hampshire. That’s where they were formed, record, practice, and where Wilson and another guy live, but they have players from Texas, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Brooklyn. The lineup for the Pickle show is Wilson Wilson (lead guitar and vocals), Christopher “Tal” Pearson (keyboards), Andrew “Dubking” Riordan (saxophone/vocals), Matthew “Dickey” James (bass), Brendan “Bdilla” Dillion (drums), and Kyle “Bobby” Bell (guitar/vocals). Christopher started the band with Wilson, and they’ve been jamming for 20 years. Andrew has been with them for 11 years, and the rest are relatively new. Wilson said, “They’re all super young and hungry. They have amazing youthful energy. They’ve been with us for the past year to three years. It’s a cool combination of three people who’ve been focused and dedicated and three people who are bringing a new kind of fire and getting us excited for things.”
By Kevin Bires
Grateful Dub, is the headliner of the “Grateful Roots Tour, this Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Pickle Barrel, with Roots of Creation performing as the opening act.
They’ve been doing a lot of studio stuff for ROC and Grateful Dub. Wilson said, “I’m proud of how much new stuff we’ve released (nine singles in the past year). We’ve been trying to put out as much music as possible.” Lifetime, they have five studio albums, four live albums, and one live EP. You can find these on their website, rootsofcreation.com, and on all the social platforms. Wilson added, “My philosophy is to get as many people to listen to it as possible. If they really want to support us, they can buy a ticket to a show, and if they want to go above and beyond, they can buy it on vinyl and CD, where it sounds a little bit better. I got into this because I love music, so the more people that listen, the happier I am. I like when it affects people in a positive way. We’ve had people tell us our music got them to quit drugs, helped them through a divorce, and got them out of suicidal thoughts. That’s my favorite part about releasing music; other than that, it makes me feel satisfied to create something. Plus, when people come to shows, it feels good that you’re doing something that people feed off of. The more people who listen on the internet, the more people you get to entertain and have fun with.”
They just released a deluxe version of their 2018 GD album, which has instrumental versions of every song. Wilson said, “They’re fun to listen to because you get to hear everything that’s going on, the vocals aren’t clouding that up, and you can sing along if you want.” It also has an acoustic version of “Standing on the Moon” and a dub version of “Friend of the Devil.” They also have live singles of “China Cat Sunflower,” “Fire on the Mountain,” and “They Love Each Other.”.
A bucket list item of mine is to go to the Sugar Shack Sessions in Florida. I’ve seen a few favorite bands of mine play there. Look it up on YouTube; it’s incredible. Wilson and the guys recently played there and released their whole session. Wilson said, “We did ‘Reggae Rise Up’ in Florida, and they loved our set and wanted us to do a Grateful Dub set at Sugar Shack. They said it would be really bad ass. We were really excited to go to Florida and do that.”
Grateful Dub came to be because when Wilson was learning guitar, someone told him if he wanted to be cool, he’d have to listen to four bands: The Dead, Phish, Moon Boot Lover, and Fishbone. I’ve seen all 4, so I agree. Wilson was playing metal and punk music but was told to learn those if he wanted to go to the parties. Wilson said, “I started delving into the Dead, trading bootlegs and trying to figure out what Jerry was doing on the guitar—the improvisation. It was the art of the jam band. I was trying to figure out the art of the solo and the solos you can sing from beginning to end. That’s where my love for the Dead started. When I got to high school, the older kids adopted me because of the bootlegs. The Dead was a big part of being accepted by the older crowd, as was my love of music and improvisation. Then I started ROC and kind of fused the Cali reggae, ska, fusion of all different music, like Sublime did of the jam band aesthetic.”
Wilson is excited to play the Pickle Barrel again and said, “It’s a legendary spot.” He loved this life and said, “It’s an honor to have this be my job. Everything I do for a living is music. I’m honored that people work all week, hire a babysitter, and spend their hard-earned money and time to drive and see us perform. To have this be my job is amazing. Making love, music, and family are the most important things, and skateboarding or snowboarding if I can get it in.”
