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Red Sea Pedestrians Debut New Album At Bell's On Saturday

Cara Lieurance

The eclectic Kalamazoo band Red Sea Pedestrians is celebrating its first decade with a new album, See Through The Eyes of Osiris. Prior to the CD release event at Bell's Eccentric Caféon June 25, the six musicians joined Cara Lieurance for live music in the studio at WMUK. 

The current members of the Red Sea Pedestrians are Ian Gorman (mandolin, guitar, banjo, bass, vocal), Rachel Gorman (clarinet, vocal), Bill Caskey (guitar, keyboards, bass, vocal), Michael Fuerst (bass, cello, vocal), Cori Somers (violin, vocal), and Benjamin Lau (drums, percussion). All are involved in writing and arranging the original songs and instrumentals of their set. Elements of klezmer, hot jazz, folk, and vaudeville can be heard in their songs, some of which have extended playoffs that become wild dance episodes.

Ian Gorman says the band was first formed as a klezmer-themed opening act for the Corn Fed Girls' 2006 Christmas show, "just for a little balance, you know." Clarinetist Rachel Gorman and violinist Cori Somers discuss internalizing the harmonic minor scale used in Jewish and Eastern European folk music. Cori says it has come to sound like a "grounded, earthy, 'let's get together' kind of place." The most recent additions to the band's lineup, Mike Fuerst, Ben Lau, and Bill Caskey, weigh in on why they were excited to join the group and create a new chapter in the band's storied history.

They play four new songs in the Takeda Performance Studio at WMUK. See Through The Eyes Of Osiris will be available at the release concert on June 25 at Bell's and soon on iTunes, CD Baby, and Earthworks Music.

Cara Lieurance is the local host of NPR's All Things Considered on 1021 WMUK and covers local arts & culture on Let's Hear It on 89.9 Classical WMUK weekday mornings at 10 - 11 am.
As Chief Engineer for WMUK, Martin Klemm is kept busy by tending to a variety of issues - from computers to tower lights - he will never run out of things to fix. Before coming to WMUK in 2003, Martin worked in Los Angeles making records with some outstanding producers, but preferred to be close to his family here in west Michigan. He enjoys keeping a busy schedule balancing WMUK, loving on his friends' doggos, and remodeling his home in the Edison neighborhood (which never seems to end)
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