While not newcomers to the music business, The Deadfields are newly formed and new to making authentic music borne of the love for the songs and enjoying them for their own sake. This may not seem revolutionary, but for a collection of musicians who swore off “the business” of making music to fit audience demographics, genuine expression and pleasure through songs have been their own coup d’etat. Their self-produced record, Dance in the Sun, begins to show their break from their past, but to truly appreciate how engaging and infectious The Deadfields’ music is, you really must see them live. They have already written more than an album’s worth of new songs, and hopefully will move more closely to capturing the energy and joy of their live shows.
Lead singer of The Deadfields, Geoff Reid, shared his personal path through music soon after we met at one of my favorite music festivals, Albino Skunkfest. The Greenville, South Carolina native had an early epiphany that he was not going to be the next Jimi Hendrix, but pursued music anyway. Soon after learning to play and wanting to write his own songs, Reid immersed himself in Neil Young’s lyrics and the raw emotion of Athens, Georgia band Five Eight, both of whom expanded his realm of music beyond traditional commercial radio fare. Through college in the music-rich city of Charleston, SC, Reid enjoyed seeing bands and finally worked up the nerve to perform at a few open mic nights, but his journey through pop country music left him empty and unfulfilled creatively.
With the rapid assembly of The Deadfields, through the original friends, to a third member, and ultimately through their friends, to the current five-person lineup, the guiding mission is to be honest and have fun. The songs they are developing as a group are as much to make music that they would like to listen to as it is to have an audience, and the fans are finding them, in many ways more easily and rapidly than through the former “contrived band” experiences of the various members. The Deadfields are still molding together, but out of mutual appreciation for genuinely creating together, shared through hundreds of band emails of songs and snippets each week. www.TheDeadfields.com
This post first appeared on Country Fried Rock with the complete radio show audio, playlists, and an exclusive video from the band: http://countryfriedrock.org/1226-the-deadfields/
