Hot Buttered Rum: Rum Goes Green

What do you get when you mix bluegrass, butter, and biofuel? Hot Buttered Rum – a band that blends traditional Americana music with modern musical influences and a shot of progressivism. As pioneers of the music industry’s biofuel revolution and lyricists of social and environmental change, they are among the growing cadre of artists who are holding a microphone for the Earth.

Music is certainly no stranger to social movements. In the civil rights and the 1960s antiwar movements, for example, music helped to unite the oppressed with what sociologist Emile Durkheim called a “collective identity” and provided an artistic channel through which to express a call for revolution. In the sustainability, or “green,” movement, arguably one of the largest social movements of our time, music is playing a similar tune. However, finding harmony is not easy to achieve.

“There is an inherent dichotomy between music and the green movement, where the practice of touring is at odds with the environmental message,” said Lauren Hatfield, Lifestyle Experience Manager of Clif Bar. “There is a need for musicians’ practices to coexist with their message.” Hatfield leads the Clif GreenNotes program, which works with bands, including HBR, to lessen the environmental impact of touring and spread the good green word.

When asked at their recent show in Portland, OR what a tour with a net-zero environmental impact would look like, HBR’s banjo player Erik Yates chortled, “Holographic concerts.”

HBR makes significant efforts to find harmony between their touring practices and their environmental mission. These efforts include running their touring bus on biofuel, partnering with organizations such as Clif Bar and Rock the Earth on education and outreach initiatives, creating a Biofuels Learning and Resource Center on their website, and, most recently, stopping the use of disposable plastic water bottles during shows.

“As a band, part of our measure of success is if we’ve been able to do what we want to do in a way that minimizes our own impact but also promotes others taking that into consideration as well,” said Yates.

According to Hatfield, musicians are in a unique position to encourage positive social change. “Artists have the power to share information in a way that scientists and politicians can’t. By addressing the issues in an environment that is relaxed and positive, they are given an influential voice that fans respect.”

Aside from the difficult dichotomy of “green” touring, Yates and band mate Nat Keefe recognize other nuances in the tune that music is playing in the green movement.

“The green movement is a much bigger and more diversified movement [than the movements of the 1960s],” said Keefe. “We don’t have a singular Bob Dylan or Joan Baez at the forefront leading the way for a whole generation.”

With artists from legend Willie Nelson to feminist icon Ani DiFranco joining HBR on the metaphorical stage, there is certainly a variegated chorus of voices singing out for positive change.

Also, the message of this chorus’ songs strays in direction from that of previous social movements. While the socio-political songs of the 60s had potent lyrics of dissent and indignation that demanded the system be torn down, such as Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War,” the songs of the green movement provide the more hopeful message of working to build up a better future.

“You have to figure out a way to not only cry out, but to also fix the problem,” said Yates. “‘Masters of War’ is the kind of song that wouldn’t make as much sense nowadays, because you’d have to offer, along with your indictment of the people, some other way to go.”

Yates and Keefe cited their tune “Guns or Butter” as an example of a song that calls for people to get involved. In fact, the band has compiled a collection of songs on their website, appropriately entitled “Green Tunes,” that tackle social, political and environmental issues and promote change.

“We need to inspire people more than scare them; we have to encourage people to do what they can,” said Yates.

Avoiding the doom and gloom of the issues featured in their songs is vital to HBR’s music and message.

“Doom and gloom are a lot less fun to sing about,” said Keefe. “As artists, we go after artistic truths – about love or about the world and the way it works. If we can express something that reverberates with ourselves and with other people, then we’ve done our job.”

Creating a unifying feeling, rather than coercing people to think a certain way, is how HBR views their role as musicians in the movement. Through their live shows, Yates and Keefe claim they enable people to lose themselves in something bigger and help them find relief from the problems that exist outside the venue doors.

“When people come to our shows, they’re experiencing a confluence of philosophy and a heart-based approach,” said Yates, who equated live music to a secular church in which people can commune and become more open to positive contribution. “People are looking for a place where the heart matters more than the head. This helps to open up their willingness, desire and drive to be better stewards.”

Just as importantly, they’re trying to put the fun in social change.

“Environmental change has to be fun,” said Keefe, recalling his participation in the 1999 WTO protest in Seattle, where he was captivated by the event’s street circus, parades and costumes. “The public spectacle was inspiring to me; it was a light bulb moment. I thought, oh this is what the environmental movement is going to look like.”

Through both their music and their practices, HBR’s message has reached fans and musical peers alike. Yates and Keefe said they’ve received emails from numerous fans and know of several bands that credit the band for their conversion to biofuel.

“We’re here to serve our community, to provide a place of love and fun, and to create a space to exchange ideas for a group of people that spread across the country,” said Keefe. “In the end, if we’re going to use resources on something, live music is a good use of them. There are much less productive things for humanity.” 

To learn more about Clif GreenNotes and what both musicians and fans can do to lower their environmental impact, visit www.cligreennotes.com.

Jenny Seifert is a freelance writer based in Portland, OR and writes a regular column for Ecometro.com. She is also the Assistant Oregon Director of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council. She can be reached at jennyseifert(at)gmail.com.