Orisha-A New Band of Reminiscence

Popping in the Orisha "Titanic Slips" cassette into my car player and zipping down Highway 99, my thoughts suddenly wafted toward memories of the music that played on my tape deck all through high school and college. At the risk of showing my age, the sounds and lyrics that I heard from Orisha were much like the sharp, cutting sounds that I loved in the Jefferson Airplane and Traffic-very much Haight Ashbury and waxing poetic (though while teaching writing at Colorado State, my colleagues and I constantly debated whether rock 'n roll could be poetic).

Orisha's lyrics on "Titanic Slips," are often poetic, sometimes ruddy and vulgar, but always cutting to the quick with well thought-out honesty. The honesty in the music is due, perhaps, to the personal nature of the songs, of which each seems to have been inspired by a certain friend or acquaintance of the band. Jacob Ackerson and Gavin Bowes each had a certain someone on their mind when they collaborated on "Take another look at me lover." Bowes undoubtedly wanted to get a message across to someone when he penned the lyrics to "Sheila and Angie."

It's this personal touch that ads to the appeal of Orisha's music. The songs are not thrown out just to be cast into the breeze. The songs mean something to the band, and to any listener who can relate to the particular emotions reflected in lyrics like "I've thrown myself in vain in front of that car one too many times," and "I've been around the world one million times in my mind searching for somethingÉ."

Ackerson's vocals set the mood for the songs, and his guitar follows his lead, with strings that whine and sob much like Kastner's from The Jefferson Airplane.

The music often wafts like a fading echo, sounding more like an internal thought than an external sound from a stereo. But the mood of the song changes, and suddenly the sound is brisk, asking to be brought to a conscious forefront. Just as quickly, the mood becomes playful and bouncy, as in "Smell of the Rain."

"Red Wire," my second favorite cut of the tape, nearly gave me vertigo, with it's single, spiraling guitar notes-though some of my disorientation may have been caused by having more than my usual eight caf? mochas. "Long, Green Grasses," a quasi-country moan of a tune, gave me the urge to quit my job, and to cast off my shoes so that I could sit on the splintered wooden fence of some San Joaquin Valley farm, not caring about anything except whether I might fall off of the fence.

My favorite cut of the tape was "Dream on a Gray Day, a dismal tune that seems more uplifting depressing-a bit of an oxymoron, but then that seems to be the style of Orisha. One minute they're pinning someone to the wall, saying I love you, and weeping for your pain, all in one breath.

I had no idea what to expect from "Titanic Slips," particularly since I was to cut my teeth on Orisha with their earlier songs, but I was pleasantly surprised by their Sixties, San Francisco sound.

Ackerson, besides being the primary vocalist, plays acoustic and electric guitars and mandolin. Bowes, who also provides vocals, plays drums and percussion. Zach Dubins plays electric guitar and bass. Gordon Hanley, a recent addition to the band the band plays bass. All four musicians play well, and they play for keeps.

Orisha is a moody band, sometimes harsh, sometimes soft, sometimes cold and sometimes soothing, but always in the mood for making music-good music.