Thursday, January 01, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: For guitar and country

SoulBlind struggles to balance music and the military

By Newt Briggs

If all goes well and no new global emergencies pop up between now and the New Year, Staff Sgt. Chuck Forsythe, Sgt. Maj. Jerry Norton and Staff Sgt. Tom Rowe might just make it to their upcoming show at the Cheyenne Saloon. To civilians, this might seem like a short span of time, but as noncommissioned officers in the Air Force, the three have learned that no gig--no matter how close--is ever guaranteed.

"We've been a band for almost four years now, but we've actually only played together as a complete unit for about a quarter of that time," says Forsythe, lead singer and primary lyricist for SoulBlind. "Inevitably, one of us is always getting shipped overseas or doing temporary duty somewhere else. We're never all together at once."

Rowe, for example, found out he was being shipped abroad just days after joining the band. "I was all pumped up about getting into the band, and then I found out I was going to Kuwait," he says. "To be honest, it really sucked."

And just as SoulBlind was putting the finishing touches on its second self-produced LP last January, Forsythe was told to start packing for Iraq. Ultimately, he was stationed in Qatar, where he worked fueling jets for 5 1/2 months. "It was a lot of long, hard, hot work," Forsythe says. "We worked 12-hour days, six days a week."

Still, in true military fashion, Norton, Rowe, bassist Paul Patterson (a technical sergeant in the Air Force reserves) and drummer Vic Valdenegro (the band's only civilian member) soldiered on, opting to play acoustic gigs while their lead singer served overseas. The only problem, admits Norton, was that none of them could really sing--particularly not with the guttural fury of Forsythe.

"Without Chuck, we're pretty vocally limited," says Norton with a laugh. "Tom sang most of the lead parts, and Paul and I filled in where we could. It wasn't pretty, but we stretched ourselves out and made due."

And now that everyone is back together, they're finally poised to pursue the music career they've only been able to imagine during their stints overseas. At the beginning of December, the band finally released its self-titled sophomore CD--a 60-minute-plus effort that combines Forsythe's howls, Valdenegro's sturdy rhythms and Norton's searing heavy metal riffs into an unexpectedly sophisticated alt-metal uproar. SoulBlind is also currently applying to get some dates on the national USO Tour, and depending on the members' military commitments, they may try to play some gigs in California and Arizona during the coming months.

"We try as hard as we can to make it work," says Norton. "We work with our bosses, and try to arrange our schedules so that we can get as much time together as possible. But of course, the Air Force always comes first."