Foreign Mission

Buell is best known as the percussionist for the modern folk-rock band Caedmon's Call, where his world-beat performances add a crucial and distinctive element to the band's sound. Over the last five years, Caedmon's Call has sold nearly half a million albums, and their latest release, 40 Acres, cracked Billboard's Top 100, debuting at #77. And though they perform over one hundred concerts a year before thousands of people, it still doesn't satiate the energetic Buell.

"I love the people, I love the music, I love touring, I love everything about the band," says Buell. "But it still doesn't satisfy my appetite musically for what I want to do and the challenges I want to pursue."

At first, he feared that he didn't have the financial or musical resources to pull it off. But Buell soon found support from independent label Grassroots Music, which has made Foreign Mission its inaugural project. He also gained confidence from fellow musicians, who were anxious to participate. "And as soon as I decided that I really wanted to do it," says Buell. "God just opened the door."

In the Summer of 1999, Buell began to make plans and gather musician friends to perform on the album. Rather than turning to fellow members of Caedmon's Call, with whom he plays all the time, Buell recruited musicians with more experience in jazz and experimental music. "I knew for the type of project I wanted to do, I wanted it to be an odd instrumentation, not your normal rock band," says Buell. "I have so many friends that I have gone through life with and played with and that have inspired me," he says. Three of these musicians played on Foreign Mission, bringing their own unique talent and perspective.

Trip Wamsley (bass), Buell's former roommate, added his funky, bending, driving bass lines to the songs, most notably, "Bitter/Sweet." A full time musician, Wamsley has toured extensively with his unique solo bass performances, and has recorded several experimental records of his own. Robert Boston (piano), whom Buell met while in college, expertly contrasts the hard bass with minimalistic, yet stirring, jazz melodies. Boston, who plays in jazz and orchestral acts, also teaches music theory and composition at the University of Houston. Jett Butler (guitar), another friend from college, shines on "Amorphous," with soaring and beautiful solo runs up the fretboard. Butler, an architect by profession, is a serious student of guitar, and, Buell says, "his love for guitar is so intense that he can do other things but still maintain his love for the instrument. And it shows."

With these prolific instrumentalists, Foreign Mission is far more a group recording more than a mere drum album. The bass, piano, guitar, and Buell's intense percussion, each have distinct voices, all the while working as a part of the greater whole. Although each instrument was recorded individually in the studio, the songs have a distinctly live feel to them, as each performer plays off of the others. Buell says, "I had ideas in the direction of the album, the big picture of where I wanted it to go, and so I directed them a little bit as they would play. But I told everybody to do what they wanted, because I wanted the whole thing to be very spontaneous. When an idea is fresh, then it's the best."

The result is an album that will, of course, be appreciated by musicians. But more important to Buell is that non-musicians enjoy it too. "I don't want to write an album for drummers and musicians," says Buell. "I would like musicians to enjoy it, but I want everyone to enjoy it—people who just like music, they can listen to it and find something valuable about it."

The experience that Buell offers the average listener is illustrated by the sound-effects introduction to the record. We hear a person walking up a city sidewalk, past clubs full of music, then opening a door, a crowd cheering and the music kicking in. The exact city sidewalk, the club, even the name of the band does not matter. For in this age of the global urban culture, music transcends geography and projects like Foreign Mission give the listener the musical world in one recording.