I’m taking the week off of writing this newsletter, in order to feature an excellent piece written by Greg Teal for the Quinte Arts Council’s Umbrella Magazine. For the uninitiated, this article does an incredible job of encapsulating what Dead Root Revival is all about. Enjoy the read, and if you want to experience a DRR show for yourself, come out to Meyers Creek Brewing tonight (Thursday, July 23rd) for what promises to be an epic rock and roll concert!
There is a particular kind of moment Dead Root Revival seems built to chase. It is not just volume, although there is plenty of that. It is not just musicianship, although the band clearly has it. it is something stranger and harder to pin down: it is the instant when a song stops feeling like a rehearsed arrangement and becomes a living thing. For Tom Savage, that feeling goes back to his earliest live performances with a band.
“Moments would come around, when the band’s really cookin’ or I’m in the midst of an extended guitar solo, and you find yourself moving into a different space, a different way of thinking... a different way of being.” he says. “Once that happens, you’re like, I want more of that!!”
That hunger for transcendence sits at the heart of Dead Root Revival. The Kingston-based band moves through blues, rock, soul, folk, and classic jam-band energy without ever sounding especially interested in choosing one lane. Ask Savage whether the band consciously resists labels, and his answer is simple: “We serve the song.”
That phrase could almost be the band’s operating principle. Dead Root Revival’s music has the feel of players who know exactly what they are doing, but are still willing to let the room, the audience, and the moment push the songs somewhere unexpected. There is structure, but not stiffness; no polish for its own sake.
“Our approach to performance is to take things right to the edge, but not allow ourselves to go off the rails,” Savage says. “This requires a trust and cohesiveness between the band members.”
That trust is essential because Dead Root Revival’s songs are not treated as fixed objects. They breathe, shift, and stretch. Improvisation is not a decorative extra, it’s part of the engine.
“We allow a song to breathe and change and grow,” he says. “We have our structure but when improvisational elements are added to the mix, you need to be ready to adapt. The rawness goes back to serving the song... sometimes playing the wrong note is the right thing to do.”
For listeners who know Savage primarily from his acoustic singer-songwriter work, Dead Root Revival may feel like a louder, heavier extension of the same emotional core. He has moved between acoustic and electric music throughout his career, but he acknowledges that many people first encountered him in a more folk-oriented setting. Dead Root Revival does not abandon that intimacy so much as amplify it.
“I think fans of my solo work have become fans of DRR, and vice versa,” he says. “They know they’re going to get an honest, heartfelt performance... it’s just that sometimes those performances will be more face-melting than others.”
That mix of honesty and force is part of what separates Dead Root Revival from bands that merely recreate the sounds of blues and classic rock. The influences are there, and the band does not seem embarrassed by them. Savage says they will happily lean into a straight-up blues number or a Stones-like groove, as they do on “Maybe Baby,” But nostalgia is not the destination.
“I think we as a band have an internal editor”, he says. “We kind of just know when something is working and when it isn’t.”
The band’s music works best when it feels less like a tribute to the past and more like an argument for why those older forms still matter. Blues, in particular, is not treated as museum music. For Savage, its themes remain urgent.
“Economic Inequality hasn’t been this egregious since before the French Revolution, so a lot of people have good reason for the blues. We also need music that not only points to what is wrong with the world, but also offers new perspectives and potential solutions.” he says. “In other words, hope.”
That word, hope, matters. For all of Dead Root Revival’s grit and volume, there is a deeply emotional current running through the band. Their own bio speaks of music that can “steal your heart”, a phrase that might sound too vulnerable for rock and roll if the band did not seem so committed to meaning it.
Savage believes audiences are ready for that kind of sincerity. “ I think people are slowly starting to wake up from a decades-long techno social media fever dream,” he says. “They want to get back to something real. They want to feel things and they want to be present.”
That desire for presence also explains the band’s relationship to the current music landscape. In an era of algorithmic discovery, short clips, and endless digital noise, Dead Root Revival’s music asks for immersion. Their songs build. Their sets move through peaks and valleys. Their shows depend on the energy of a room.
“We feel very much at odds with the current musical landscape,” Savage says. “We are a throwback to another time musically and how we approach our business. We will rent the hall, do the sound, work the door, and even print and sell good ol’ fashioned paper tickets!”
There is something fitting about that. Dead Root Revival is not simply playing music inspired by an earlier era; they are trying to preserve a way of experiencing music that feels increasingly rare. Grassroots, physical, communal, and human.
“I personally feel rejecting technology and getting back to the analog way of doing things is what will ultimately save the music industry,” Savage says,”on a grass roots level anyway.”
That grassroots spirit is also tied to Kingston, a city with a music scene Savage describes as unusually supportive. He compares it to Winnipeg, despite Kingston’s much smaller size, and points to a culture where musicians show up for one another rather than treat the scene as a competition.
“Musicians will go out to other musicians shows on their night off and cheer them on, “he says.
The city has also benefited from having a strong network of venues, though Savage notes that Kingston has taken some hits recently with the loss of important long-running spaces. For a band like Dead Root Revival, the venue matters. They have played major stages, including Rockfest, but Savage speaks with particular affection about smaller and more unusual rooms: a big old barn at Furnace Falls Farm, a cottage clubhouse in the woods north of Wakefield, and Jimmy Joy’s Music Room in Bracebridge, an industrial-sized garage converted into what he calls “a top notch music venue.”
“I would say we are partial to smaller venues and the vibe they create,” he says. “Big enough so we aren’t destroying people’s ear drums, but small enough that they have an intimacy to them. Either that or outdoors.”
Playing outdoors, he adds, offers its own kind of freedom.
“I love the way the sound carries without the constraints of a building.”
That sense of space, whether indoors or outside, seems central to how Dead Root Revival thinks about performance.
Setlists are not just collections of songs.
Savage thinks of them almost as emotional architecture.
“I’m thinking about creating a vibe and hopefully carrying the listener away,” he says. “I want the set to ebb and flow, and have peaks and valleys, so I suppose it’s a bit like acts in a play.”
To make that work, the band has to balance structure and trust. Tony Silvestri’s keyboard work, along with the rhythm section, gives Dead Root Revival the ability to move quickly between delicacy and full-force rock. But those shifts only work because the players are listening closely.
“It’s all about trust,” Savage says. “We go to the edge of the track and hope we don’t fall off.”
Most songs have defined structures, rhythmic changes, and planned shots. But the improvisational sections are where the band’s chemistry becomes most visible. That is where listening matters most. That is where a song can suddenly open up.
“The vibe,” he says. “And yes, that is hard to explain... I would like them to feel invigorated,” he says. “Like we lifted their souls up, and recharged their batteries or something.”
For Dead Root Revival, that may be the whole point: to plug into something older, louder, rawer, and more human than the moment we are living in, and to send people back into the world feeling a little more alive than when they arrived.
Photography by Adam Brooks
deadrootrevival.ca
Thanks for reading Tom Savage: Leave It All On The Stage! This post is public so feel free to share it.
Thursday, July 23rd - Tonight!!! DRR plays an outdoor show at Meyers Creek Brewing in Belleville, ON. Don’t miss out!! Tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/dead-root-revival-at-meyers-creek-brewing-tickets-1988915132702
Friday, July 24th - Tom Savage & Friends at the ANAF club in Kingston(5-8 PM) **this is the same format as TUNESDAY, with the middle set being an open mic
Friday, August 7th - Wolfe Island Music Fest Warm-up Party at Spicer’s with Tom Savage & Friends (early show, 3-6 PM)
Friday, August 14th - Dead Root Revival perform at The Cove in Westport, ON for the Music Westport kick-off party!! 6 PM start
TIX: https://coveinn.com
Saturday, August 15th - Tom Savage & Friends at Spearhead Brewing (2-5 PM)
Saturday, August 22nd - Dead Root Revival returns to the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield,QC
TIX: https://events.frontdoorplus.com/event/2297
Friday, August 28th - Tom Savage & Friends at the ANAF Club (5-8 PM)
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