by: Michael P. Iten
When the 10,000 Maniacs perform Friday night at Jamestown's Reg Lenna Civic Center, the city will get a preview of the band's soon-to-be-released album, Love Among The Ruins.
More importantly to the band's members, however, the concert will mark their return to live performance.
At least two members can't wait for the album's release, when they will hit the road in support of it.
The album, originally slated for a February release, has been postponed while the band finishes work on new songs and accompanying artwork is finalized. The Maniacs are hoping for a spring release.
"I'm looking forward to when we actually get out and tour more - to sing every night would be great," said singer and viola player Mary Ramsey during a telephone interview from her home in Buffalo. The Post-Journal interviewed Ms. Ramsey and guitarist John Lombardo after hearing the new album.
"We've been doing a lot of individual shows. It's fun, but you just don't get into the groove like you would normally," said Lombardo via telephone from his home in Buffalo.
"(You) spend so much time thinking about the logistics of the gig. When you're on tour, playing night after night, you just seem to really put it on automatic pilot and enjoy it a bit more."
The cuts heard from Love Among The Ruins mark a return to the Maniacs' characteristic, folk-rock sound. Added to the mix, however, is Ms. Ramsey's appealing, distinctive voice and viola playing, which adds another level to the music, and Lombardo's rhythm playing, which he said frees up guitarist Rob Buck.
"After I left the group (in the early '80s), his style changed a bit," Lombardo said of Buck. "He's really now able to focus on his sonic texturing."
Ms. Ramsey's viola adds an ethereal, sometimes psychedelic texture to the Maniacs' sound, a sweeping, classical voice that insinuates itself into the mix. When combined with more relationship-oriented lyrics, the new songs have a strong emotional pull.
"I feel like the songs I've been involved in writing are kind of like short stories - you can come back to it again and again," Ms. Ramsey said.
Her land comment is something once said about another 10,000 Maniacs singer - Natalie Merchant - to whom Ms. Ramsey knows she will be compared.
"She is an icon, almost a legend," Ramsey said of Merchant, who is a native of Westfield. "I don't want to be an icon. All the people in the group want to be together and performing music. The public might have mixed feelings about it. I just want the music and performance to speak for itself. I'm as old as Natalie is and I don't take it (the hype) too seriously. And I know her."
The new group mindset seems to suit the Maniacs. Keyboardist Dennis Drew said many of the songs on Love Among The Ruins were written in the Gokey Center in Jamestown. The 12 songs played for The Post-Journal hint at a kinship, a sense of family. Drew and bassist Steven Gustafson are local businessmen and have strong ties to the area.
"In the band now, there are six people, and three are single people and three are married people," Lombardo said. "It's like an extended family now. .... It's not your usual image of the reckless rock 'n' roll band on the town doing whatever they want. In some ways, it adds stability to what we're doing."
The group's sensibility has been a learning experience for Ms. Ramsey.
"I've been singing with a band, and it does change your voice," she said. "When it was more of a folk thing (with her last project, John and Mary), I used a lighter voice. It's a different approach. Plus, the longer I sing, the better I think I'll get. ... I've had time to sing with the band, understand what it requires of my voice."
On the new album, she sounds more confident, her voice more evocative of the emotions are dredged in the songs.
For Lombardo, who quit the band just before it received national success, playing with the Maniacs is a natural extension of his mission.
"It was frustrating - here I was at the River Rock (Cafe, a Buffalo bar) and they were at Rich Stadium with the Grateful Dead," he said of the years before his return. "I was not always trying to be a commercial success, but I was always trying to write good songs. ... I don't consider myself a great musician, but it's something I've always wanted (to do) - I've always been kind of obsessed with music. So it was really kind of like a dream come true trying to make whatever living I could with it."
Of the new music, Ms. Ramsey said, if the band achieves its objectives, it will be a memorable as the classic music of the past.
"There are enough people out there that have always enjoyed music - the kind of stuff that stands the test of time. I hope that's the direction we're going," she said. "I (hope) we're a band that has the kind of music that people will want to listen to even a few years from now."
For Lombardo, who flew from California to continue laying down tracks for the new CD over Christmas, the album's release will start the new era of the 10,000 Maniacs.
"We're only scratching the surface, because we don't play that often," he said. "Once we get on the road and start playing a lot - I've very anxious to hear it - I have a feeling it'll come off quite nicely."
"I felt we've crossed a lot of different themes on this one," Ms. Ramsey said. "A lot of songs are almost nonsensical and there are others that are stories. ... It's really, really great when someone really loves something you've created."
Friday night's concert begins at 8 p.m. and will give the local audience an unusual insight in hearing the new songs from the "new" 10,000 Maniacs.