Album

The debut album from The Deep Roots - Never Coming Back

About

Never Coming Back, an odd name for a debut album. But these are odd times.

Everyone has lost something to Covid-19. Something that is never coming back. Some have lost loved ones, jobs, and livelihoods and our thoughts and prayers go out to them. For most of us, the challenge is to just keep plowing ahead faced with so much uncertainty. 

But Never Coming Back is also a statement of optimism. A decision has been made to go in a new direction that will hopefully be better. Kind of ironic for a four-piece rock band working in the tradition of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Kinks that took its name from The Lord of the Rings.

If you take a listen, you'll hear that we aren't trying to recreate or imitate the British Invasion. We are inspired by American rhythm and blues, jazz, country, and the lyrics of Bob Dylan that influenced those bands, and we are making our claim there is still more to be said under those influences. That's optimism.

The cover photo was taken by Natalie Belin as we were walking home from a photo shoot. We knew it was the album cover right away. It captures the loss and the optimism.

Album Credits

  1. Newspaper Man (Kerr)
  2. Neon Lights (Oreski)
  3. Dreaming Hard (Sullivan)
  4. Another Lie (Kerr)
  5. Soft Soft Sand (Sullivan)
  6. Seesaws (Adaptation of the poem "Seesaws" by Samuel Hazo by Oreski)
  7.  Ain't No Sunshine (Withers)
  8. Over Our Heads (Sullivan)
  9. Ragtop Eldorado (Kerr)

Back-up vocals on "Dreaming Hard" by Erin Kerr.
Cover photo by Natalie Belin.
Cover design by Ryan Kerr.
Recorded in our practice space. Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Ryan Kerr.

Copyright 2020.

Music

Blog

Remembering Bluegrass Great Mac Martin

This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor sometime in 2006. I can't find it on the internet so I'm reposting it here. 

Aside from seeing Sonny Rollins, seeing Mac Martin and the Dixie Travelers was the most powerful music…

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On the Hypnotic Sound of The Vulgar Boatmen

 An image borrowed from The Vulgar Boatmen Facebook Page. Not sure of the origin. It fits the theme of the post.

A word that I often hear people use to describe the Boatmen’s sound is “hypnotic.” I’ve also heard “trance”…

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Set List for the Concert for the Pool

Picture of random setlist from the internet. Our setlist is as follows. Order and contents subject to change.

 

Baby what you want me to do (Jimmy Reed)

The Wanderer (Dion)

Folsom Prison (Johnny Cash)

California Stars (Wilco)

 

Neon Lights (Original)

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Remembering Grant McLennan 

Grant McLennan:  February 12, 1958 – May 6, 2006

I’m highly susceptible to the phrase “The Greatest Band You’ve Never Heard Of.” What? A great band that I have never heard of. Who are they? 

Starting with my teenage infatuation…

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Grant McLennan Tribute by Mark Davies

I'm a new convert to the Go-Betweens. I noticed that May 6th is the 15th anniversary of the passing of Grant McLennan, so I posted on the Go-Betweens fan page on Facebook if anyone was interested in writing a tribute

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From the Profit He's Made on Your Dreams

“And the man in the suit has just bought a new car from the profit he's made on your dreams” Low Spark of High Heeled Boys 

I received this e-mail today and I couldn’t help but make some comments in…

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Happy Easter

Leisure is not the cessation of work, but work of another kind, work restored to its human meaning, as a celebration and a festival. -Roger Scruton

We watched Easter Parade last night, as has been our tradition on Easter. In…

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The Great Restoration 

Think small. Ubiquity is overrated. - David Lowery

For as long as we’ve lived in Forest Hills, during the summer and fall there has been a farmers market in the Presbyterian Church parking lot on Ardmore Blvd. on Friday afternoons…

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The Jazz Guitar of Harry Leahey

Review by Walt Bibinger 

"1985: Some Good Stuff " Harry Leahey & Ron Naspo

This newly released CD from Bottom Line Music captures a 1985 "Musical Mansions" concert in Montclair, NJ. Bassist Ron Naspo recorded the performance and after coming…

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Review in Dagger Zine

The following review of Never Coming Back appeared in Dagger Zine on February 8, 2021.

Its always nice when you find out that an occasional contributor to this site, in this case guitarist Mark Sullivan, is also a musician and…

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On Writing Songs

This is the way writing songs goes for me. I wake up in the morning and there is a song in my head. I can hear it like it is on the radio. Chords, lyrics, melody, structure, and even the…

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Biographies

Andrew Oreski

Bass and vocals

Andy has played trombone, mandolin, guitar, bass, and has sung in The Deep Roots. In recent years he has stuck to bass and singing. As a student at Waynesburg University, he participated in the musical productions and sang in the jazz choir. As an alum, he remains active in the Waynesburg music program. Andy has been unsuccessful convincing the rest of the band he doesn’t have any music talent. Quite to the contrary, he is the on stage quarterback who holds the band together.

Ryan Kerr

Guitar and Vocals

Ryan Kerr has been playing guitar since high school. He produced, recorded, engineered, and mixed the band’s first EP Therapy Sessions in less than six weeks despite never having used recording software before. Ryan has an encyclopedia knowledge of contemporary music. He and his wife, Erin who regularly sits in with the band, have seen over a thousand shows together. He is also a troubleshooting ninja, which is a lifesaver for a band.

Mark Sullivan

Guitar and vocals

Mark has played in bands on and off since the early 1990s. He likes to brag that he has played at legendary Pittsburgh clubs like The Decade and Graffiti and that songs he has written have been played on WYEP. He also studied guitar with some of Pittsburgh’s finest teachers, the late D.C. Fitzgerald, Ernie Hawkins, and John Purse. Mark’s wife, Celeste, is an accomplished trumpet player who occasionally sits in with the band. Her patience with the band’s Monday night rehearsals in the basement has been a source of the band’s longevity. Mark’s responsibilities in The Deep Roots include social media promotion and other myth making activities. He also writes about music on the band's blog. His writings on music have appeared in Glide, Dagger Zine, and Spirit of Cecilia.

James Sullivan

Drums

James Sullivan has been keeping a steady beat since he was old enough to hold something to bang on. At the age of seven, he started taking drum lessons from Vince Wallace at the Monroeville Music Lesson Center and has been studying the last several years with renowned traveling music teacher and session musician Chris Belin. He played his first gig at the age of nine and hasn’t stopped since. It was James’s idea to form the band. He is also the one in the band who insisting that no matter what, “It has to rock.”

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Press Kit

Independent Rock and Roll Band

The Deep Roots are an independent rock and roll band from Pittsburgh, PA. Choosing to take their music to where the people are, they have focused on community events, festivals, private events, and fund raisers.

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