Chuck Ragan happy for another Revival Tour
As the sixth edition launches this month, the hootenanny-style Revival Tour has become an established brand in the touring industry.
But talk to Chuck Ragan, the founder and organizer, and it's clear that Revival is much more a labor of love than a business endeavor.
“It's been far from easy,” Ragan said. “We've had a lot of tours fall through.
“We're happy to have kept it alive as long as we have, but at the same time, we're still living tour to tour,” he said. “We do our best to just get through each one and make it work because we do very much believe in the artists. We believe in the ethic and we believe that all of these artists that are on these tours need to be heard. And we just love it.”
The Revival Tour brings together an eclectic group of artists to perform acoustically in a show in which they collaborate and jam with different combinations of the musicians on the bill. The shows tend to change from night to night as the artists get to know one another and come up with new ideas for their performances.
This year's lineup features a typically diverse roster of artists that includes Ragan (a solo artist and member of the punk band Hot Water Music), Tim McIlrath (frontman of Rise Against), Dave Hause (of Loved Ones), Toh Kay (singer-guitarist of Streetlight Manifesto) and singer-songwriters Jenny O, Rocky Votolato and Jenny Owen Youngs.
Because of its song-swapping format, the Revival tour provides a unique opportunity to see the artists perform in unusual settings. McIlrath, for instance, will be playing in a markedly different format from his usual plugged-in, high-energy shows with Rise Against. And even the singer-songwriters get to put a new spin on their songs.
“The special thing about it is (the audience) is seeing them in a completely different light than they normally would see them otherwise,” Ragan said. “If they go see Cory Branan often or Nathanial Rateliff or any of these guys (who have done past Revival tours), they may see them most of the time playing completely by themselves. And they come out on the Revival tour, and they'll see them showcase some of their songs with an upright bass behind them, or a fiddle or a mandolin or pedal steel, or three backing vocals backing them up.”
Ragan plans to use his spotlight time to focus on material from his latest solo album, “Covering Ground.” Released in fall 2011, it was his fourth studio album, all of which came after Hot Water Music went on hiatus in 2005.
All four albums have found Ragan stripping back the sound from the energetic and catchy punk rock of Hot Water Music to an acoustic-centered, more folk-flavored style.
“I wanted to do a record that would translate easier live and would be more precise as to what people are going to hear when they come to see me live, which for the most part is just myself, (bassist) Joe Ginsberg and (violinist) Jon Gaunt,” Ragan said.
Who: The Revival Tour featuring Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music), Rocky Votolato, Jenny Owen Youngs & Matt Pryor (of The Get Up Kids) When: 8 p.m. Monday. Doors open at 7 p.m. Where: The Orange Peel, 101 Biltmore Ave., Asheville, N.C. Tickets: $18 advance/$20 day of show Info: http://theorangepeel.net or 828-398-1837 or 828-225-5851