ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: JONATHAN HUNLEY STAFF WRITER
The Agents of Good Roots are tired - and late - as they arrive at Trax Nightclub in their maroon Ford van.
The band members pull their instruments out of the back of the van and enter the nightspot. In less than two hours they will set up their equipment, do a sound check and be on stage for their weekly Tuesday night gig in the timeslot previously occupied by the Dave Matthews Band.
And they won't show a bit of the road weariness they've developed from a drive in from the Midwest.
Up and down the highway. City to city. Such is the life of the four 23-year-old musicians - Andrew Winn, Stewart Myers, J.C. Kuhl and Brian Jones.
The tour path leads the Richmond-based band to Roanoke on Saturday night for a show at the Iroquois Club.
This area, however, is not new to the band.
"It's almost like our second home," Jones said.
For Winn and Myers, it is home. Both grew up in Roanoke. They first played together in the band room at Patrick Henry High School, Myers said.
The group has played at the Iroquois countless times and recorded most of their latest album, "Where'd You Get that Vibe?", at Salem's Flat Five Press and Recording.
Todd Cooper, Flat Five's promotions director, said the band was as professional in the studio as musicians who have played for 20 years.
"These guys eat, sleep and breathe music," Cooper said.
Agents of Good Roots has sometimes been compared to the Dave Matthews Band, with whom they share the services of Red Light Management of Charlottesville.
Cooper, however, called the two bands' styles "completely different." Agents of Good Roots produce a jazzier sound, he said. And he should know. Matthews worked with Flat Five on his first album.
"It's rock 'n' roll where your standard electric guitar is not the centerpiece," said Tom Ohmsen, the chief engineer and owner of Flat Five.
Ohmsen engineered and co-produced "Where'd You Get that Vibe?" And while he said he couldn't predict whether the band would ever be as popular as Dave Matthews he said the group is "reaching the same kind of core audience."
"I'd be real surprised if big things aren't ahead for those guys," he said.
Ohmsen said that Agents of Good Roots have as big or bigger a following than any band in Virginia right now. Flat Five initially produced 5,000 copies of "Where'd You Get that Vibe?" Usually, regional bands only ask for 1,000 or 2,000 copies, Ohmsen said.
The album is selling, too.
Michelle Cordle, district manager and marketing coordinator for Virginia at The Record Exchange, said the album is a "pretty consistent seller."
The record store chain has had to increase orders for the album, she said, and customers have even asked the Record Exchange in Blacksburg to hold copies of the album for them in case those in stock sold out.
One person who bought the album is Timothy Litzenburg of Lexington. Litzenburg created one of the two Agents of Good Roots sites on the Internet. He has spent about 10 hours creating his site - the most he's spent on any part of his home page, he said. A friend turned him on to the band's music, and he was hooked.
Litzenburg's page includes Agents' sound bits, links to related sites and song lyrics.
And even though the 14-year-old Litzenburg has never seen the band live, he also includes a list of the band's tour dates at the site. Litzenburg's Agents of Good Roots Internet site is located at
http://www.wlu.edu/~tilitzen/agr.html
This fact should delight Chris Tetzeli. Tetzeli, the Agents' co-manager, said the band's goal right now is to tour a lot and develop a strong fan base - not to get a quick record deal.
"I think that will come in due time," he said.
Tetzeli said he doesn't want the band to get a record contract, go on MTV and become a one-hit wonder, so the Agents' live shows have become part of their trademark.
In concert, the band plays an up-tempo, get-out-of-your-chair-and-dance kind of music, a blend of jazz, funk and rock. Every band member except Kuhl sings, with Jones doing the songs calling for mid-range vocals and Myers singing higher parts.
Winn, who has a master's degree in classical guitar, sings the "very low, urban, bluesy" songs while playing guitar, and keyboard on some songs.
"[The versatility] gives the band a bigger sound with more colors - musical colors," Winn said in a telephone interview.
Winn has a very husky, raspy voice, the result of a skiing accident when he was 14 years old. The blunt end of a ski pole jabbed him in the throat.
Because of the fragility of his voice, Winn especially tries to keep away from elements like tobacco smoke.
"I try to keep my voice healthy and not push too much," he said.
The band, which encourages its audience to tape its concerts, is also known for a lot of improvisation in their live shows. This trait is reminiscent of acts such as Blues Traveler, with whom the band will appear at several East Coast Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere concerts this summer. They're also the only unsigned group on the Lollapalozza-like HORDE tour, Kuhl said.
The twists and turns that the Agents of Good Roots' music takes in concert brings to mind the many turns they take on the highway.
"We travel for a living and play for fun," Myers said.
Timothy Litzenburg's Agents of Good Roots Internet site is located at
http://www.wlu.edu/~tilitzen/agr.html
* Agents of Good Roots plays Saturday night at the Iroquois Club, 324 Salem Ave, downtown Roanoke. 982-8979.
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Agents of Good Roots - (from left) J.C. Kuhl, Andrewby CNBWinn, Stewart Myers and Brian Jones are no strangers to the Roanoke
Valley. Winn and Myers grew up in Roanoke. The group has played at
the Iroquois countless times and recorded most of its latest album
in Salem. color.