Gothic Theatre
Hot Rize
Formed in 1978, Hot Rize was undoubtedly one of the hottest bluegrass band throughout the 80s. Tim O’Brien, Charles Sawtelle, Nick Forster and Pete Wernick made music that would “flat take your breath away” (Houston Post), until they disbanded in 1992 after thrilling fans on the road for over a decade.
So Long Of A Journey almost didn’t make it out of the closet — literally. Unbeknown to the rest of the band members, Nick Foster had the band’s 1996 reunion concert in Boulder concert recorded, which proved to be prophetic as the show was pure magic — a musician’s dream. Later, Forster and Sawtelle were excited about the prospect of mixing the tapes, but they were misplaced, stored in a closet until their discovery years later. Now, they are not only a lasting record of one of the best bluegrass groups ever, but also wonderful tribute to Charles Sawtelle who succumbed to leukemia in 1999.
“I remember one day at Charles’ house in early ‘96. We were preparing for the first
extended Hot Rize tour in six years, eleven one-nighters including both coasts, with two days home in the middle, playing the Boulder Theater. I was glad we were doing the first part of the tour in a bus, like our early years starting back in ’78 traveling all those miles, listening to music, making music, just each other for distraction. These days that’s some-times called "male bonding ". Those days it was just our life. Nick asked, what if some people came along to tape the shows? I wasn’t into it. Not that I minded our being recorded. I just didn’t want to know about it. I wanted to focus on the experience, not documentation. Nick dropped the topic. But after the Boulder Theater shows, he casually remarked that he’d had them taped, multi-track. Yes! Those were fun shows, and the band was clicking. We were in our element with two packed houses of hometown fans.
Eighteen years into the band, we’d finally have an album of us as we were on stage,
just being ourselves. Way to go, Nick!
Less than a year after this tour, Charles took the devastating path of undergoing a bone marrow transplant to fight the leukemia he had contracted in 1993. From then on, physical challenge and the ongoing threat of death were with him always. He continued to play music and work as he was able (a remarkable amount, as it turned out) until our last show together in August of 1998. I treasure every moment. This record represents to me the best of our band in the period after our 12-year full-time run, and in some ways, a pinnacle of all 2 0-plus years of Hot Rize. Having grown up together musically, and then parting and continuing to grow in other contexts, we were now a sum of greater parts than ever. And we could still blend as only long-term bandmates can. It amazed me at times, how without conscious thought or discussion, it all flowed naturally together. What a blessing to have been a band long enough to reach that place, and what a joy to return again." — PETE WERNICK
“Listening to this cd, I hear a real band playing the way only bands that have grown up together can play. You can hear how well we know each other, and I’m real proud of that. The other senses perk up for me too. Between the lines of the voices and instruments, I see and hear other things. A banjo rolls and, all of a sudden, there’s a duffel bag full of T-shirts being dragged through the Vancouver airport. Behind a bass lick I hear a Detroit diesel bus engine starting up and I can smell the fumes. Guitar runs look like Sedan DeVilles. When Nick talks I see Pete waving his arms, locked inside Larry’s Restaurant in Langley, Oklahoma. I see square dances, worn flatpicks, and lots and lots of old neckties. I guess this band was Pete’s idea, and Nick and I were the front men, but Charles brought a lot of the soul to it. His guitar playing was so unique, we had to build the sound around him. As he starts his solos on this recording, I hear us bracing for another wild ride, holding tight like you do the steering wheel on a twisty mountain road with a steep drop off on the right. He imitates the dobro and the fiddle, cannon and machine gun fire, and impressionist paintings. His whole persona exists within the sound of that 1937 Martin D-28. It contains his musical influences, his loves and sorrows, vintage clothes, even what he ate for dinner. He comes and goes in the sound, sometimes bold, sometimes subtle, but even when inaudible, he’s always felt. I miss him so much, but I hear his words come out of my mouth every hour. I mix records the way he would have. I laugh at things he showed me were funny. I know he’s here inside me and I’m better for it. I’m pretty sure Nick and Pete and Frank feel the same. I’ve done lots of different stuff since Hot Rize was on tour, but I’ll never stop being a member of the band. The colors are too strong and they just won’t wash out. I wear that uniform with pride.”
- TIM O’BRIEN
" I know that playing music while the tape is rolling is not always the same as just playing music. So I didn’t tell the other guys that I had asked our friends Mickey Houlihan and Mike Grace to record our Boulder Theater shows in ‘96 until the next day. About a year later, Charles and I began to talk about how we would mix the tapes over at his studio, Rancho DeVille. He wanted to transfer them from digital to analogue and back to digital using his old Sculley tape machine. And then he got sick, and we both got busy.
When Charles died, one of the first things I did was to go over to Rancho DeVille and look for the tapes so I could finally finish this project. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I called everybody Charles knew and asked about them. The “lost tapes,” I was sure, contained some of the best music Hot Rize had ever played. And they were gone - vanished. About a year later, my wife, Helen, found the tapes in a closet in our house. Charles had brought them over one day a couple of years before and I had forgotten about it. Pete and I then went down to Colorado Sound, where we had recorded a bunch of the Hot Rize records, and, with Kevin Clock, mixed the songs on this CD. In some way this is the perfect end to a really good chapter. It has all the elements- a little mystery and intrigue, some willing collaborators, an evil threat, a tragedy and a pretty happy ending. Charles, Tim, Pete and I played these songs a thousand times, and now that Charles is gone, I hear it all in a new way. We were a band that knew each other really well, and this is what we sounded like on a good night." — NICK FORSTER
