GFE Web Portal v3.3

The long and winding roots of the GFE crew stretch back through time and space to the sandy woods of Ocala Florida during a 1994 regional Rainbow Gathering.

For those of you who don't know, the Rainbow Family of Living Light is a massive tribe of people spanning the entire globe, taking over slowly. They come together for month long celebrations in national forests and are attended by anywhere from 15 to 25,000 Earth dwellers. Food is free, rent is unheard of, music and entertainment are abundant, and the psychedelic journeys are the best ever. For more information about the largest non-organization in the world, visit www.welcomehome.org.

That 1994 gathering in Ocala was the birth place of the Granola Funk Express vegan kitchen and theatre. There were road dogs and rookies, granolas and gutter punks, couch-surfers and krishnas all working together preparing delicacies, writing songs and skits, all while dancing to the ever present drums, the funk heart beat, the 'boom boom crack'.

The Funk tribe continued forest hopping in various manifestations and one year later, returned to the Ocala regional in 1995. By that time, the tribe was stronger, the kitchen and theatre more evolved, and the music more advanced to where heads were now commonly freestyling and creating improvisational poetry on the spot, off the top, to that 'boom boom clack', that just don't stop.

The Tribe kept growing and Funk kids began to develop a bond. Between gatherings, the scene shifted from the woods to cities and towns across the country, where GFE would often engage in street performance. Such towns and cities include the likes of Eugene Oregon, Arcata California, Richmond Virginia, and especially, what some consider the street performance capital of them all, Boulder Colorado. Crews of up to 10 and 20 homeless travelers planted themselves in the streets armed only with empty coffee cups to beat-box into and a hat to collect donations and proceeded to rock hour long sets completely freestyle, sometimes receiving hundreds of dollars in a day from those who would pass by.

After performing at mainly street corners, festivals, gatherings, barter fairs, and even a side stage at one of the first Lollapaloozas, a concetrated, core group of musicians came to rest and set up camp in the western North Carolina moutain town of Asheville in 1996.

From this point on, the tribe became more settled and started focusing on combining the freestyle and street performance skills aquired from the last two years of traveling with their collective song writing abilities, marking the internally controversial distinction between Granola Funk Express the rainbow kitchen, and GFE the band from Asheville NC.

GFE's first gigs came to be at the now defunct 31 Patton Ave Bar (of "Club 31" fame), where completely improvised events were performances were met with a wide mix of reviews.

Regardless, people continued to come and move with the energy of the tribe as songs began to work themselves out.

In time, GFE had enough material and familiarity with each other on stage, it was time to once again take the act back on the road. The tribe packed up their gear and headed North in 1997 for their first tour. The venues consisted of mostly coffee shops, restaurants, and very small clubs and bars. While some shows flopped, others like those first held at The Common Ground in Brattelboro Vermont, became classic arenas for the GFE entourage to let loose. These early shows, combined with awareness of the group from the gatherings of years past, helped to create the tribe's initial fan base, entirely from word of mouth.

Soon GFE began to collect enough instruments and recording gear to be able to independently construct their first GFE full band release titled Beat Poem Manufacturing (B.P.M.) in the fall of 1998. As the groups's first attempt BPM was rather low-fidelity but nevertheless facilitated a format for showing their diverse production skills, using both live and programmed beats. It also provided a vehicle to distribute the music and its many messages to fans who were always craving more after the shows.

Upon listening, one may encounter lyrics ranging in topic from politics and puddling the governor, to galactic harmony and spirutal consciousness. Funk jams, reggae, hip-hop, and rock styles combined for an original sound. B.P.M.'s first track would set

precedent for all first tracks and opening songs at shows to come, the Ohm. The Ohm is the holy tone that synchronizes vibrations, clears the mind, and gets the participant ready to share in the collaborative performer/listener energy.

In years to follow, the seeds that had been planted during the mostly North East tours of the late 90's, began to grow at a fast and blessed pace. The shows became larger and therefore the venues grew as well. Both the live and recorded sound of GFE evolved into a tighter presentation. Some band members were lost, others gained, and Life and Time did their strange and mysterious dance, creating the moment we call NOW ... all in the name of destiny.

Today, the tribe called GFE is on the road doing gigs nationally to packed clubs, in the studio working on more musical masterpieces, or in the practice space formulating a new potion for sound. Believe this, wherever GFE goes, whatever GFE does, GFE gives thanks.

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