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MIKE FARRIS AND THE ROSELAND RHYTHM REVIEW
A Mike Farris show is like a traveling tent-revival working its way up the banks of the Mississippi River from New Orleans through Memphis and onto points north. Touring in support of his most recent release, Salvation in Lights, Farris uses the musical language of centuries-old spirituals, timeless stories of struggle and soul, to tell a uniquely redemptive story.
Farris started over 15 years ago when he formed a band, the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies. The band had some success, signing to Atlantic Records and having a Top 10 rock-radio hit, touring with such known acts as Blues Traveler, Joan Osborne, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, ZZ Top and the Allman Brothers Band. But, deep inside, Farris knew that the bars and clubs the band often played were the last places somebody with his struggles needed to be. The addictions returned with a vengeance, throughout the Cheetah Wheelies' existence and beyond, even as Farris fronted Double Trouble, the rhythm section of the late guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughn.
In the winter of 2004, Farris found himself at the end of his rope, standing graveside, at a relative's funeral. "I realized how tired I I'd become from running all those years, and I just wanted to go back home," Farris says. "I'd had enough of it all and decided I was not going to be that man ever again."
With the help of his family, Farris became sober, and soon after, he began writing in order to heal again. He quickly realized the new songs he was writing dovetailed nicely with those old familiar songs that had been with him all along.
"I finally said, 'I think it's time for me to take those traditional, turn-of-the-century songs and add these things I'm writing that sound like that, and just go with it; this is what I want to do,'" he says. "It became real clear to me."
Now, original songs like "Devil Don't Sleep" and "Lonely Road" serve as much as to remind Farris of where he's been as they do to encourage his listeners. By doing so, they forge a bond between audience and performer, even as they connect him to a rich tradition of spirituality that runs through American folk, gospel, soul and rock.
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