“Send Me On My Way” was a minor hit on a major label for Rusted Root in the early ‘90s as the band gained a devoted following with an upbeat style of percussion-laced groove rock and psychedelic pop that sounded like a cross between Santana and Talking Heads. Stereo Rodeo marks the band’s first studio album in over seven years, but lead singer and guitarist Michael Glabicki says the band never really went anywhere.

Rusted Root

“We weren’t on a break, more of a vacation,” Glacbicki says. “We were touring still, but not worrying about recording anything other than one live album. We had been out there for 15 years; it just felt like a good time to wind it down a bit, live life, do some solo projects.

Now that we’re back, it feels like we have the same kind of energy we did when we were starting out.”

Seven years is an eternity in the music business, especially the last seven that have seen the industry turned upside down, but Glabicki says the band’s world isn’t much different.

“The world has changed, not us,” he says. “We want to play music and create the ritual of a live show, to transcend people’s realities. There was a spiritual opening we rode into in the beginning; it’s tougher to create that now but it’s still there.”

That beginning started young for Glabicki, who says the percussive world music groove that Rusted Root developed into its signature sound had its roots in his early exposure to those rhythms.

“In Pittsburgh, around the universities, there is a large amount of black culture available, with African drumming and concerts all the time,” Glabicki says. “My cousins, who were about 10 years older than me, were into that and took me around with them so I got used to hearing those sounds in a setting that was separate from the rock ‘n’ roll I was listening to. When I heard Peter Gabriel using some of those same things in his music, I thought I could do it too. A drummer I knew in high school had some African drumming tapes and we worked on figuring it out for ourselves, and later on, the musicians I found when forming this band were all involved in an African drumming class at the university.”

It’s that drumming that sets the tone for all of Rusted Root’s best songs, including the single “Dance in the Middle” from Stereo Rodeo. As if you’re in a drum circle gone rogue, the beats push and pull against the tempo of the song, while Glabicki’s distinctive vocals bark out the titular command, sounding like the hippest square dance caller ever. It’s ecstatic stuff, but there are moments on the new album that are far from the band’s usually happy stance.

“Bad Son,” for example, is an anti-George Bush tune that shows a more explicitly political side to the band, something Glabicki says came from him witnessing some powerful activism in action.

“I was doing some solo work raising money for Iraqi Veterans Against the War and did a benefit show for a march on Washington, D.C.,” he says. “There were 100 veterans who did a die-in on the Capitol steps in their uniforms, refusing to move. They were carried off and arrested. I spent a few days alone right after that weekend and wrote that song.”

With the band newly energized, Glabicki says it’ll be focusing on expanding its reach.

“We’re going to go overseas for some shows next year,” he says. “It’s something we haven’t done much due to the large size of the band and the difficulty in making it work financially, but we’re just going to do it anyway. We just want to get in front of people and remind them we’re still here.”  

The Elbow Room is at 2020 Devine St. in Five Points. Doors open at 8 p.m.; admission is $20 in advance via etix.com or $25 at the door. Visit myspace.com/theelbowroomsc for more information.