Roots & Grooves. Australian husbandry? Hippie genealogy? No and no. Roots & Grooves is a project, a movement in some ways. It is the melding of musical styles under the direction of a fast bond of brotherhood. It’s also the name of the band and their debut record. They call their music a smorgasbord of folk, jazz, classical and blues.
This story isn’t about a curtain call, let alone a swan song. Rather, it’s the tale of how music has woven itself into the lives of two men, made them unlikely collaborators, and how it’s keeping one young, the other aspiring to age with the kind of youthfulness his partner does. And having way too much fun on the ride. Now, back to the beginning.
Our story kicks off as something of your typical May/November bromance. First, a note of admiration is sent from the former to the latter.
“Rick came to my school when I was in Grade 4. I wrote him a fan letter and he wrote me back!”
Rick is Rick Scott, three-time Juno nominated singer-songwriter and dulcimer whiz. When he isn’t spreading love and laughter via music, he acts as Goodwill Ambassador for the Down Syndrome Research Foundation and is curator of the Protection Island Museum.
After the letter, Rick, the autumn month, plays coy for several years.
The spring-ish kid who wrote the letter? That’s Nico Rhodes.
“In my life, music came from my family,” says Nico. “I grew up on the road with my mom, international touring artist Joelle Rabu, and her musicians. They taught me what it means to be a musician from many distinct and personal perspectives. So, family always has a part in everything I play. Rick’s music was a huge part of my formative years. My childhood playlist was Beethoven, Jerry Lee Lewis and Rick Scott.”
Their relationship grows slowly and organically.
“We’d hired Nico to work with us on a couple of other projects and, when he was 23, we commissioned him to orchestrate our educational concert, My Symphony, for 50 players and a 50-voice choir for the Vancouver Island Symphony. He did a phenomenal job. It became their most popular educational show, seen by 7,500 kids,” says Valley Hennell.
Wait. Who’s Valley? She is Rick’s long-time partner, the ampersand in Roots & Grooves, he says. In this union of youthful virtuosity and seasoned style, Valley is, let’s say, the officiant. And promoter. And collaborator. She saw the potential in the merger of Rick and Nico, their styles and sensibilities.
The consummation of this musical marriage produces Roots & Grooves.
“Nico is a classically trained jazz pianist and I’m a self-taught Appalachian mountain dulcimer player,” says Rick. “So, Roots & Grooves is an unlikely convergence of 88 keys meeting four strings tuned to two notes. Our music is a beautiful volley back and forth where the sum becomes much larger than the parts. The more we play, the more intuitive we become, which makes the music shimmer. I wrote some of these songs when I was Nico’s age, some before he was born, but his mastery, energy and enthusiasm make old songs new.”
Of Nico, Rick says, “he is just starting out in his career and is destined to go far, there is no doubt his journey will lead him away to bigger things and I completely support this.”
Like any healthy couple, the two complement and compliment each other.
“My youthful exuberance occasionally takes us down some unexpected turns, and Rick’s clarity of experience allows us to dig deeper into the story and truth of the music,” says Nico. “I like to think we shake each other up and the audience gets to come along for the ride.”
Rick is philosophical about the ripening process nature has in store for all of us; he looks back fondly on the past and cherishes the memories and the music, not the endless flights and strange beds.
“My career seems to go in eras, starting with the Pied Pumkin in the ’70s, acting for theatre in the ’80s, then two decades touring the world performing for children. Roots & Grooves has brought me back to playing for big folks and we’re finding our audience spans three generations,” says Rick.
With 70 and… err… 30 on the horizon, there are no signs of slowing for the pair. In addition to writing and recording their sophomore offering, a full-length stage musical adaptation of Rick’s audio novel *The Great Gazzoon* is in the works. At the core of the piece is Gazzoon, a little boy who overcomes his fear and changes his community through his love of music.
If music is the universal language, then surely there are dialects. The folk singer doesn’t always pick up what the jazz man is putting down, and the rocker doesn’t always get what the mezzo-soprano offers up. Rick and Nico come from different musical worlds. Yes, their backgrounds could be more disparate, but not much.
It is their profound love of music and a mutual respect that has given way to a deep communication. It flows between them on and off stage and then makes its way out into the crowd. And at its core is a hybrid musical language, their very own pidgin.
With every show, they spread the word, leaving audiences smiling and humming tunes with a sort of new accent in their way of speaking, feeling – improvisational mountain.
The last word goes to Rick:
“Love, laughter and groove makes us never want to stop, it is simply too much fun.”
In February/March, Rick and Nico will play concerts in Sooke, Victoria, Maple Ridge, Whistler, Bowen Island, Brackendale and Cortes Island. On March 11, they will perform a double bill with Ann Mortifee at the Port Theatre in Nanaimo as part of Festival Nanaimo. Details at www.rickscott.ca
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