Early James
“It’s a house with a lot of character,” Auerbach says. “I’ve always loved it. I always felt inspired when I was there. I knew it would be a fun place to do something. It’s over a hundred years old. It’s got the old plaster on the walls, plaster ceilings, old wallpaper. There are big oak floors and an oak stairwell. The first floor has twelve-and-a-half-foot ceilings. It’s pretty awesome. But it’s not a recording studio by any means.” “We had to drag all the gear in there. We set the little mixing console upstairs — this crazy, wild old ’50s Universal Audio tube console that I’d just gotten and fixed up, which was built by FAME Studios’ Rick Hall for his studio in Memphis — in a spare bedroom, and we ran the wires down the stairs. We set up James and everyone in separate little rooms downstairs. James’ little Princeton amp was right behind him, there were no baffles or anything, and so when he was Early James recorded his first two Easy Eye Sound albums, Singing For My Supper (2020) and Strange Time To Be Alive(2022), at the studio inside the vaunted label’s Nashville headquarters. But for James’ third release, Medium Raw, producer and Easy Eye Sound label head Dan Auerbach envisioned something quite different for the Alabama-bred singer-songwriter-guitarist’s rawboned, sometimes scarifying music. “Day of the first session, I had my GPS routed to Easy Eye,” James recalls. “We ran into some traffic, and I texted [engineer M.] Allen [Parker] — ‘Hey man, sorry, we’re gonna be about 15 minutes late.’ And he said, ‘It’s OK, we’re still getting set up at the house.’ And I was like, ‘What house?’ ‘We’re recording at this house, it’s really cool.’ It was news to me! It felt unusual in the moment, which I think makes you play the songs differently. But I’m really happy with and proud of the results.” “I wanted to try to find that power of when I first saw him, when it was just him and his guitar,” Auerbach explains. “After working with him a couple of times in the studio, I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do it in the same kind of way. The comforts and luxuries of the studio, where you’re able to hear everything and make adjustments and changes, wasn’t right for this project.” The house in question, known as “Honky Chateau,” was an old Nashville property owned by photographer and artist Buddy Jackson. The writing continues to display the hallmarks of James’ distinctive, one-of-a-kind style: whip-smart wordplay, upended clichés, humor both light and dark, and a deep intelligence that frequently reflects a literary sensibility. His musical sensibility has leaned toward the hard stuff from an early age: “I remember getting obsessed with the blues and getting obsessed with old country. My first favorite musician was Hank Williams. There was something about how dark that music was. I could listen to Hank Williams on repeat and never get tired of it. Hank Williams, Jr., lives in my hometown of Troy, Alabama, and he and my dad were hunting buddies. They still run into each other at Julia’s Restaurant in Troy. I listened to a lot of Howlin’ Wolf, and his guitarist Hubert Sumlin — I thought that was Howlin’ Wolf playing the guitar.” Like the rambling bluesmen of old, whose repertoires would mutate from night to night, James says audiences should expect him to work some new wrinkles into his songs on stage: “I’m trying to play dress-up with this record on the road. You never know what it’s going to be wearing. It depends on what thrift store we get to.”
Township & Range
Now based in Tulsa, OK, Township & Range is best described as “Americana,” as it encompasses a range of American styles. The project’s name comes from the fact that many of the songs focus on local color and geography filtered through a personal lens. “[T]he neighbors, the neighborhoods, and the neighboring countryside take seat, front and center, in Linn’s songwriting. The writing…follows in the traditions of old Americana legends like Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie.”–Hear Nebraska A native of Oklahoma, Travis Linn spent nearly three decades in Nebraska. While there he garnered eight Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards (OEAAs) both songwriting and playing bass in a variety of bands. Black Squirrels and The Electroliners both won OEAAs for “Best Americana/Folk” in 2008 and 2015, respectively. As bassist with Matt Whipkey, Travis earned both “Artist of the Year” and “Album of the Year.” On the strength of those awards, the band toured with Dwight Yoakam throughout 2015-16. Since its founding in 2013, T&R has been both a solo and collaborative effort in Omaha and Tulsa. It is currently a solo project. T&R has released two EPs to favorable reviews for the Nectar + Venom label: Dust On Our Boots in 2015, and Nashville Unincorporated in 2017. OEAA nominations were forthcoming after the release of both EPs. “If you’re looking for some good country and Americana music from Omaha, check out Township & Range … Linn’s new EP, Dust On Our Boots is a collection of plains country tracks such as “Duct Tape & Bailin’ Wire,” about holding things together with what you have and healing up by rubbing a little grit on your scrapes. It’s also my favorite from the five-song EP. “Sandhills Sojourn” sounds like the soundtrack to riding across Nebraska in a wagon, and “Top Shelf Tonight” is a toe-tapper about drinking the good stuff.” –Omaha World-Herald The Tulsa version of T&R began playing live in July 2022, and has performed at The Colony, The Whittier Bar, Thelma’s Peach, Centennial Lounge, Renaissance Brewing Company, Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood’s “Amps On Admiral,” Noise Town Tulsa, Art Crawl on 66, and even the Blue Whale of Catoosa’s 50th Birthday Bash. Township & Range was the only Tulsa artist invited to play PorchFestKC 2023. In December 2023, the live-in-studio episode of RSU TV’s Studio 66 was aired on public television. For 2025 T&R has already been selected to perform for the Norman Music Festival (NMF) in Norman, OK; and the Crossroads Festival 66 in Carthage, MO. T&R is always looking to play more shows in the region, and is currently recording demos for an upcoming album.
The Wild Feathers – Sirens Tour 2024
A decade plus into their career now, The Wild Feathers over the course of four studio albums, a rarities release, and a live album, have been labeled everything. Some have immediately checked a box for Americana – and they wouldn’t be wrong. Others may lean on a version of rock: Country-rock, folk-rock, heartland rock. They’d all be right, too. Blues? A Southern flare? Occasional punk attitude? It’s all in there. But as a band who are constantly committed to pushing forward, no label put on The Wild Feathers truly sticks around for long.
Clarence Tilton & Friends
feat. special guests Matt Cox, Kat Ludwick & Korey Anderson
The Back Home Tour: Joshua Quimby
The Deslondes
$18 ADV / $20 DOS