The Grassroot Deviation is an

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

-based four-piece musical group that plays a mixture of

roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

. The band formed in 2002 and consists of

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

s Brian Parker and Dan Smith,

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

fiddler A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Although in many ...

Mike Barer and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Vinay Jhass. The band has played more than 100 shows across Canada and released two studio albums, ''The Grassroot Deviation'' and ''The Circuit''. All the band members have either graduated or currently attend the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

History

The Grassroot Deviation are influenced by

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including ...

, Bruce Cockburn and

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

. Their work includes instrumental jam sessions, such as the Celtic infused "Mr. Somebody", mid tempo folk ballads like "Steady Ground" and the funk infused "Regular People", which features 12-bar blues, call and response and funky bass and drums. Front man Brian Parker states, "I think when you combine the writing of folk songs with that dancey, groove-inspired kinda thing, you end up with what we do." The band have played on the same bill as acts such as

Keller Williams Keller Williams is an American singer, songwriter and musician who combines elements of bluegrass, folk, alternative rock, reggae, electronica/dance, jazz, funk, along with other assorted genres. He is often described as a 'one-man jam-band' d ...

, That One Guy, Wide Mouth Mason, Wasabi Collective,

Slowcoaster Slowcoaster is a Canadian indie rock band from Sydney, Nova Scotia. The band's sound is rock-based, with strong influences of reggae, ska, folk and jazz. History Slowcoaster was formed in November 1999 by guitarist Steven MacDougall, drummer Dev ...

Captain Tractor Captain Tractor is a Canadian folk rock band, based in Edmonton, Alberta. They play a punk-influenced variant of Celtic folk music, similar to such bands as Great Big Sea, The Pogues or Spirit of the West. Their songs are often rich in local, ...

, Hey Ocean, and Five Alarm Funk. Defending their liking for instrumentals, Brian Parker said " yrics aredefinitely important...Sometimes lyrics are necessary, sometimes they’re not...If you're writing a song and you want to convey a certain emotion or idea...lyrics are one route and music provides another.".Kyle, Cassandr
"Deviating From The Norm"
''Intercamp'' - March 23, 2006 The second album, ''The Circuit'', is more rooted in their jam session style, which maintains the energy and enthusiasm of their live performances. Parker explains, "We went into the studio and banged it out. It was very speedy, but I'm happy with that sound. That was sort of the concept of the album - 'Let's just do what we do.' We get the most response from our shows. The shows are what we do, so why would we try to change that?" During 2007, the band toured Canada, beginning with

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

and ending in

Antigonish, Nova Scotia , settlement_type = Town , image_skyline = File:St Ninian's Cathedral Antigonish Spring.jpg , image_caption = St. Ninian's Cathedral , image_flag = Flag of Antigonish.pn ...

. In November 2008, The Grassroot Deviation performed in front of 250 fans at ''The Digital Universe'', a laser light show complemented by Canada's only full dome digital projection system in the Margaret Zeidler Star Theatre at TELUS World of Science, Edmonton. The visuals were coordinated to the band's set which was composed largely of jams.

Discography

Albums

*''The Grassroot Deviation'' - 2006 *''The Circuit'' - 2007

References

External links

The Grassroot Deviation at The Internet ArchiveOfficial MySpace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grassroot Deviation Canadian rock music groups