DRH in The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.), 1991

Radio doesn't know how to follow

by ROD DREHER


Follow For Now is a red-hot band of young black musicians whose self-titled debut album (Chrysalis) is one of the hardest rocking, most listenable releases to cross my desk in weeks. So why are they ignored by black radio?

"It's conditioned," says guitarist David Ryan Harris. "People like Hendrix were considered freaks because they played guitar."

Black radio programmers, enamored of hip-hopsters and soul balladeers, don't know what to do with a guy raised on traditional blues and classical jazz (which Harris heard at home), Parliament Funkadelic, pre-drum machine Cameo and lots of rap (heard in his neighborhood) and Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols (heard at his predominately white Atlanta high school).

"Hip-hop I really like, but I feel they miss something because they don't have a real band," Harris says. "I feel like we're an R&B band. You don't go see R&B bands at the club level. I'm young. I'm 23. I want to rock when I go out. I don't want to listen to a crooner." Follow For Now will rock Murphy's on Nov. 4 in an opening set for Drivin' N' Cryin'. They will return on Dec. 6 to open for 24-7 Spyz at the Varsity Theater.

Follow For Now includes Harris on guitar and vocals, Chris Tinsley on guitar and vocals, Billy Fields on keyboards and vocals, Jamie Turner on bass and Enrique on drums.

The band formed in 1988, wowing audiences on the Southern club scene and drawing praise in Rolling Stone from Living Colour's Vernon Reid. The band belongs to the Black Rock Coalition, a professional organization of African-American rock and rollers.

Follow For Now throws down a gauntlet to musicians who depend on sampling and other studio tricks to produce their sound. In "Milkbone," the band angrily declares "The present stuff bores me but what can I do/If it bores you too, we can come through for you this/Is a real band and we can cure you/... 1991 just might mean an end to the b------t real players on the scene again."

Says Harris: "A lot of younger people don't know what it is to hear a real band. It's sad. It's not sample, it's not tape loops. The band on the poster is the band that plays on the stage."

Though the band's audiences are mostly white, there have been more black faces in the crowd lately. In their songs, Follow For Now addresses problems faced by black Americans, including rising racism, drug abuse and welfare dependency.

"You can't build a nation on food stamps," says the concluding line of "Evil Wheel," a song blasting complacent attitudes.

"The song says don't bitch if you don't vote. Don't bitch about changing things if you don't want to help," Harris says. "We all know there are lots of problems at this point. What you have to do is do something about it."

With their Baton Rouge gig days away, Harris said playing in David Duke country has been on the band's mind. Though he thinks the former Klansman's success is frightening, Harris remains optimistic about the progress of race relations in this country.

"The civil rights movement was only 25 years ago. A lot of these laws were passed in the Sixties and Seventies. Passing laws is one thing; changing attitudes is another," he said. "I think it's coming along."


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.