The Radiators return to Aspen

ASPEN What keeps a band going for 30 years? And by going, it is meant not merely enduring, or even staying popular, but pushing forward, maintaining creativity, attracting new fans.In the case of the Radiators, the New Orleans phenomenon that is celebrating three decades with its current Wild & Free Tour, it has to begin with the songs. Not merely the old favorites, well-known to the long-standing faithful and, to a far lesser extent, to radio listeners with keen ears and memories long enough to stretch back to the late 80s, when the Rads had a modest presence on commercial radio. Not the slew of cover tunes stretching from the McCoys Hang on Sloops to Michael Jacksons Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground), and from Elvis Costellos Pump It Up to the Grateful Deads New Speedway Boogie and so many things in between that the band is known to learn backstage, a few minutes before busting it out onstage.These are the songs that have flowed, and continue to flow, from the bafflingly prolific mind of Ed Volker. Volkers bandmates guitarists Dave Malone and Camile Baudoin, drummer Frank Bua and bassist Reggie Scanlan say they have forgotten more songs than they remember. But perhaps a more intriguing piece of Radiators lore is that for every song that the band eventually brings to the stage, another nine never live beyond the notebooks that Volker fills with lyrics and musical ideas. The repertoire of original songs including those that were played once or twice, decades ago, in the New Orleans pizza shops and dive bars that the band practically lived in, then discarded has to number in the high three digits. Volker also records solo albums Hanging Man, released last fall, and T Zero, soon to be issued whose songs are separate from the Radiators repertoire. And he writes the occasional offbeat essay for fans.The 59-year-old Volker, a former English student at Tulane University, can project a hard-to-penetrate persona: Zeke Fishhead, or just Zeke, as he is known, a far-away dreamer, and a lover of the old pianists from his hometown of New Orleans, who speaks in cryptic phrases. In an interview several years ago, Volker labeled himself an osmotic conosifer, and defined the term for me as one who allows knowledge to flow through him so that new knowledge can be processed. Or something like that.On a recent afternoon, however, as he was about to embark on the Wild & Free Tour, celebrating the Radiators 30 years, Volker was clearer than Ive ever heard him, as he explained how, three decades on, he still can write songs by the bucketful.For me, personally, the imagination, the spirit of the imagination, the full liquid motion, is vital in my personal life, said Volker, who leads the Rads to a gig Wednesday at Belly Up Aspen. And equally in my musical life, I like to keep things hopping. I guess Ive been very gifted with that thing, the liquid movement of the imagination.Volker also has been gifted with four musicians who havent tired of bringing his songs to life. The Radiators are still the same players guitarists Dave Malone (who also contributes to the bands songbook, and shares singing duties with Volker) and Camile Baudoin, drummer Frank Bua and bassist Reggie Scanlan whom Volker gathered together for a January 1978 jam session that kicked off this lengthy, odd journey. (With the exception of percussionist Glenn Cool Sears, who joined the band in the mid-80s and departed in the mid-90s, there has been no change in the lineup.) Volkers output is probably too extensive to pin down, as his musical moods range from sentimental to gritty to downright perverse, and these ideas can be delivered at times with simplicity, or with the loosest imagery possible. The quintet, however, has forged an identifiable brand of roots music a guitar-heavy, swampy take on blues-rock dubbed fishhead music as a setting for Volkers words.Volker says he knew, from that first jam, there would be many songs brought to life. If I can presume to cast my mind back, it was that immense feeling of joy and comfortableness, he said of first assembling the quintet. Everybody felt it. It felt like home, in a way. In the back of everybodys mind in those days, there was the idea of making a band and having it stay together.The mania for music predates the Radiators. Growing up in various New Orleans neighborhoods, he got the bug from his grandfather, Gran Toups, who had played the fiddle, and from his mother, who worked in a record store. Volker recalls as a kid praying for days when his mother would be away at work and the maid would call in sick: If those two things happened at the same time, Id pretend I was sick so I could stay home and listen to records Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, he said. Id go crazy. I just loved the music.Volker has saddled himself with the difficult task of investigating his own catalogue. He has been digging through old reel-to-reel recordings of the band to come up with live, two-disc compilations. The first package, Wild & Free: The 30th Anniversary Compilation, is due to be released June 24. Volker has been enjoying the process, though listening to old Radiators recordings is not his habit. I dont sit around and listen to whats happened. Its whats happening, he said.The recent lesson has not been how to keep writing prolifically, but how to be a better editor: I had a serious talk with myself: Does this song need to be written? said Volker. I now have a radar sense Is this something juicy that needs to be shared? Or is it just something goofy?Volker seems to be closer to understanding his own artistic process better than his bandmates. Asked for insight into Volkers songwriting prowess, Dave Malone, the Radiators guitarist, essentially demurred.Are you kidding me? Asking me to explain Ed? said Malone. Well, there are people who are driven to write. Hes one of them. Thats the best I can explain it.The Radiators take the stage at 10 p.m. at Belly Up Aspen, 450 S. Galena St. Tickets are $25. Doors open at 8 p.m.stewart@aspentimes.com