On a crisp fall Friday eve adjacent to Fatbelly Pretzel — which serves a dynamite Muffuletta sandwich loaded with smoked bologna, capicola, Genoa salami, swiss, provolone, and giardineria on a jumbo pretzel bun — vintage cosmic country music rang out from popular East Nashville DIY venue Soft Junk.
Swaths of folks in denim, trucker hats, cowboy hats, and cowboy boots hung both inside and out as local favorites Teddy and The Rough Riders performed for their album release show with honky tonk guitar being heard from Gallatin Avenue.
Greeting listeners on October 11th, 2024 via Appalachia Record Co. (Jessi Colter, Loney Hutchins), the eleven-track collection that is Down Home bears the torch of a bygone Gram Parsons and Flying Burrito Brothers era the band has garnered a reputation for.
Led by Music City natives Jack Quiggins and Ryan Jennings, Teddy and The Rough Riders’ new album moves along at a smooth cruisin’ countrified clip of 33 minutes, loaded with playful lyrics, lilting pedal steel, twangy Teles, and the like. It delivers a quintessential juke joint sound, ripe for knocking back a number of cold ones and picking up a pool cue amidst dim barroom lights.
Cloaked in a cannabis-induced fog and soft red lighting, Teddy and The Rough Riders casually delivered an array of songs both old and new to the foot tappin’ head bobbin’ onlookers of friends and fans. The small garage-like venue presented itself not unlike a quirky secondhand shop full of funky wall art and abstract decor, but equip with a big projection screen of the band playing along with a small countertop television towards the back.
The band rifled through the entirety of the new album in order, plus five additional songs including a few obscure country covers, and wrapped things up with “Go Lucky Kind,” the opening track from their 2022 self-titled album.
The DIY vibes were in full effect as camcorders and cameras documented the barn burnin’ honky tonk performance from start to finish, and the band graciously thanked the crowd for their support as well as the performers who warmed things up in She Returns From War and JP Harris.
The Soft Junk record release show was their second to last of a small southern tour which included shows in Texas for ACL and Alabama, with their last show being held at Mule Days in Thomaston, Georgia on October 19th. This followed their UK tour and run as Emily Nenni’s backing band opening for Orville Peck.
A fitting opener to the album, “Bullet” fires out quick with a danceable fiddle-driven Zydeco-like groove, chock full of their signature cosmic twang and mellow yet driving vocals. Elsewhere, modern melodic progressions and the layered backing vocals of Nenni and Erin Rae ring beautifully, notably in the fifth track, “Golden Light.” The song is inspired by the social and personal paralysis of the pandemic, finding hope and normalcy in the eventual return to traveling, playing music with friends, and getting back on their rightful path.
Along with “Bullet,” the eighth track and August single, “Hippies,” delivers lyrics that turn country and western conventions askew, as they sing “hippies make the best country music,” a refrain poking fun at purist country music traditionalists.
Down Home follows the band’s 2022 self-titled album, which was produced by Margo Price. Teddy and The Rough Riders classic sound transcends generation, maintaining the allure of Cosmic American music well into the 21st Century. Their live performance always invokes good time havin’ energy from the first note to the last, doing right by the city in which they call home.
Now it’s time for some Fatbelly, catch y’all later.
