Rahel - Hebrew Soul: Radio: ISRAEL IS REAL

Tune in to WSMN 1590 RADIO (www.wsmnradio.com) to hear the music of Rahel & Rootes EVERY FRIDAY from 9-10am (EST).

"The music beckons, invites you to sit down, listen a while, let your thoughts float. This is the innovative sound of Rootes." - Telegraph

"I love it. It’s the echo effect, the chanting and repeating of the same few lines in a sort of a round. It’s hypnotic." - Jam Music Magazine

ROOTES captures the spirit of WOODSTOCK and brings it into the 21st century. With a progressive guitar-driven groove that fuses jazz, folk, rock and world rhythms, ROOTES produces award-winning songs that are filled with energy and emotion.

Singer-songwriter-guitarist, RAHEL, sings in a ’free verse" style with strong and expressive vocals supported by her middle-eastern influenced guitar work. JASON PAUL’s meandering bass groove safari takes you through traditional folk backwaters, to jazz, to blues and to strong currents of today’s rock riffs. Drummer-percussionist, ANDRE DUMONT, marks the beat with a creative rhythmic force that completes the dynamic sound.

LIVE performances have been met with rave reviews.

ABOUT THE SONGS...

RISE UP SINGING

Rahel: You never know where your inspiration is going to come from. The interesting thing about this song is that the inspiration came from the title of a songbook that was sitting on my shelf. I was simply sitting in that still and quiet moment with guitar and pen in hand. I must have glanced over to my book shelf and noticed the songbook there. Next thing I knew I was writing a song! It ended up to be a bit of a protest song. My favorite verse is the last verse, “Stand up, make yourself known. We all make a difference. One by one we are changing. Together we’ll see the dawning of a new age.” This verse truly expresses my hope for a better world.

Jason: Sitting in the studio and hearing this song come to life with the drums, screaming guitars, and back up vocal. WOW!

I’LL SAY A PRAYER

Jason: There’s something about this song. We don’t play it very often, but when we do, and its just right, I get goose bumps.

Rahel: I agree. It’s a really special song. It’s about physical and spiritual love. Not an easy one to sing either.

MY LITTLE BIRD

Jason: Having studied as a jazz guitarist, this song came natural to me. I also get a solo in it. One more way to put my guitar skills to bass.

Rahel: I actually wrote the first line of this song while sitting on a plane! The tune and first sentence just popped into my head. I jotted it down not to lose it then quickly forgot about it. Sometime later, who knows when, I found that piece of paper and finished the song. I think it’s about freedom. Jason’s bass work and solo on this song is fantastic.

DOWN BLUES

Rahel: There I was… alone, feeling sorry for myself, feeling down. My hope was that someone somewhere would somehow find me and take me out of my blues. I was waiting for a “Prince Charming” to sweep me off my feet to make my life complete. Reality check please? In real life we have to learn to love ourselves before any “Prince Charming” is going to even look at us. I’ve since learned to “take my time for living. Soul searching is where it’s at.” I’m riding it through.

Jason: Being one of the earlier songs we worked on, I had so much trouble finding the right sound. It took about two weeks straight of listening to Earth Wind & Fire for me to finally capture the essence of this song. Today, it’s still one of my favorite songs to play.

THIS JOURNEY OF YOU

Jason: Live, I really get to go off on this one. I get this solo break that just gets to go everywhere. Even if I don’t know what I’m going to do next. Sometimes it’s fun to stump myself just to see how I’m going to get out of it. And I always do!

Rahel: If you’ve ever been in love, or had a mad uncontrollable crush on someone, you will totally understand this song. It’s about love. No, it’s really about loving. I was hopelessly in love, or at least infatuated when I wrote this song. Love most definitely can make you crazy. I was crazy in love even with all its ups and downs. I was there. Unfortunately he wasn’t. But I got a good song out of it and that’s all good!

KEE ELEF SHANIM - A THOUSAND YEARS

Jason: Turning the psalms into rock n roll..Hell Yeah!

Rahel: Wow. I really like this song. I love the message. In Hebrew it’s really deep. Trying to match that depth into an English lyric was not easy. The message changed slightly but it’s a really cool song in both languages. The rhythm is rooted in the Middle East so it really rocks.

T’HOME EL T’HOME - DEEP CRIES TO DEEP

Jason: Another psalm transformed into english words. This one has me playing in the desert.

Rahel: Jason’s creative bass work has transformed this song into something I really enjoy, especially when I get to experiment with some scat singing around his bass grooves. Translating the Hebrew lyric into English also opened up new doors for creative interpretation and expression.

SOUL SOLITARY

Jason: I always love putting songs together like puzzles. At seven and half minutes, this was a hard one.

Rahel: Wow. This is a song. It expresses extreme loneliness. I had made a home and a life in beautiful rural New Hampshire where each season brings with it scenes of awesome natural beauty. In winter the snows cover vast expanses of land with pure and natural whiteness; in the spring the flowers come out to usher in beautiful summer days. The fall foliage never fails to show off the splendor of God’s awesome creation. Yet, even with all that, without love and without friendship, all I could see and feel was solitude and loneliness. My life felt like a stark desert. Sometimes my life as a musician feels like this. You wonder when you will ever touch someone’s heart with your melodies or lyric. You wonder if anyone will ever notice you, your songs, and your life’s work.

7-4 HIGH

Jason: Probably our most driving, rocking songs. As predominately a rock guy, I really get off on songs like this one.

Rahel: What the heck is this song about anyway?? Sometimes I write down the words. They are visions or guidelines or something. Sometimes I just have no idea what my songs are about, or what they are trying to tell me. This is one of them. All I can say is that most of the lyric is clear. This song is about life, loving and living. The part I don’t get is what does “7-4-High” mean? If you have any clues, please tell me!

DIDN’T WE

Rahel: Vows… commitments…. Two people vow to stay together for better or for worse. How many of us have actually accomplished that? I sang this song one year at the Milford Pumpkin Festival in New Hampshire. At the end of the set a woman approached me. She wanted to tell me that this song really reached her. She felt I was singing about her life. It was nice to know that my song had reached someone, for better or for worse!

OSEH SHALOM - SONG FOR PEACE

Rahel: “Oseh Shalom” is a popular prayer that has artists world-wide writing all sorts of musical versions to. My version was born literally one night in a dream. I dreamt I was sitting in a room playing my guitar and working on a song. It was this song. As I was singing people slowly gathered nearby and began to pray. Someone in the room told me to hush because people were praying nearby. But I didn’t stop; I kept on playing because I instinctively understood that those who had gathered were there because of the song. When I woke up the song was spinning around in my head. So I grabbed a tape recorder and recorded it so I wouldn’t lose it. The dream gave me the first part of the song. I developed the rest over the course of the day. It expresses a celebration of positive energy and good feelings. Peace.

BELONG

Rahel: The inspiration for this song came from crickets. We had a chameleon at the time. In order to keep it alive we had to feed it live crickets. The house became a cricket sanctuary. At first the chirping was unbearable. But I soon got used to the sounds and came to enjoy sitting in the house listening to the crickets singing their songs. It made me feel very warm, cozy and at home. “Belong” was born out of the feelings of comfort that I got from the songs of the crickets!

REVIEWS & TESTIMONIALS

"Rootes is an uplifting combo of sparkling music and deep poetic lyrics, who rock, roll and folk their audience into a higher level of conciousness." (Ruby Harris, Chicago Blues Violinist)

"I like the ’world’ sound." (Lori, Rootes fan)

"Your music is amazing, very relaxing and magical. I respect your uniqueness!!!" (Alex, Rootes fan, age 17)

"I love your "folky", traditional sound while still managing to give it that little bit of rock edge!" (Rach, Rootes fan, age 18)