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The Deslondes, Hurry Home CD, LP, Cassette & Digital Label: New West Records Release date: June 23, 2017

The Deslondes are a five-piece band from New Orleans. In the time between the release of their self-titled debut and sophomore album, Hurry Home, The Deslondes have toured the world and drawn critical acclaim for their studied and inventive take on New Orleans country and R&B.

Hurry Home represents a sonic shift from the country-folk of their debut to a psychedelic, electrified soul sound, with a stronger emphasis on organ and electric guitar. The band split up songwriting and lead vocal duties among its five members, Sam Doores, Riley Downing, Dan Cutler, John James Tourville and Cameron Snyder, continuing its democratic ethos and musical versatility.

The Deslondes met up last winter at their record label’s studio and rehearsal space in Athens, GA, and recorded everything for five days, working out new songs and arrangements. With a batch of 20 new songs, they invited their longtime producer/engineer Andrija Tokic to New Orleans to begin tracking that summer, creating a makeshift recording studio at The Tigermen Den in the Bywater neighborhood.

The album that emerged is Hurry Home. “It’s a fitting title for this album because our lives and our songwriting revolve around leaving and returning, or searching for, home,” says the band. “And home can be a physical place, a relationship, or a state of mind.”

Recordings from the early sessions, including “Just In Love,” “Muddy Water” and “Better Be Lonely,” bear the mark of a hot New Orleans summer: a lack of air-conditioning, and creaky wood floors, which yield a languid, dreamy sound. Elsewhere on the New Orleans sessions is the feel of the city’s classic R&B, music made for dancing like “Sad Song” and “Hurricane Shakedown.”

Over several sessions back at Tokic’s Nashville studio that fall, The Deslondes finalized the album, pushing their sound forward with new tracks like “Nelly” and the gospel-influenced title track. Downing’s songs bookend the album: wistful opener, “Muddy Water,” recalling the “small town kids” of his Missouri childhood; and closing ballad, “Déjà Vu And A Blue Moon,” which he says is “an ode to those who've spent a lot of time on the road, and maybe they always will.”

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Andrew Combs, Canyons of my Mind CD, LP & Digital Label: New West Records/Loose Music Release date: April 7, 2017

“Ever heard of a happy song?”

That question is posed to Andrew Combs in “Rainy Day Song”, the lead track on his acclaimed 2015 album All These Dreams, during a barstool chat with a sarcastic friend. The singer – offended but gracious – smiles and allows the moment to pass, eschewing confrontation for the sake of a gem he polishes as an afterthought for the listener: “Tab’s on me if you think I’m lying / Laughing ain’t a pleasure till you know about crying.” The moment, full of the understated charm and pulsing honesty that defines his music, and is as good a metaphor as any for the songcraft of Andrew Combs.

A Dallas native now living near the same Nashville airport immortalized in the opening sequence of Robert Altman’s country music odyssey, Andrew Combs is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and heir to that 1975 film’s idea of the Nashville troubadour as a kind of musical monk. Here in the twenty-first century whorl of digital narcissism, where identity can feel like a 24/7 social media soft-shoe performance, Combs makes music that does battle with the unsubtle. Like the pioneering color photographer William Eggleston, he sees the everyday and the commonplace as the surest paths to transcendence, and he understands intuitively that what is most obvious is often studded with the sacred. As a songwriter, Combs relies on meditative restraint rather than showy insistence to paint his canvases, a technique commensurate with his idea of nature as an overflowing spiritual wellspring. NPR music critic Ann Powers noted as much in a 2015 review: “His song-pictures are gorgeous, but he recognizes their impermanence as he sings.” This deeply felt sense of ecology, of the transient beauty within nature’s chaotic churn, lies at the heart of Combs’s approach to his art.

After touring behind All These Dreams, a record that earned him international accolades and comparisons to everyone from Leonard Cohen to Mickey Newbury to Harry Nilsson, Combs has returned with a new album that puts down stakes in fresh sonic terrain. Canyons of My Mind, out in March on New West, is — as its title suggests — a landscape where the personal and the pastoral converge. Drawing inspiration from the biographies of literary figures like Charles Wright and Jim Harrison, Combs has created an album that explores the notion of “sustainability” in its many facets — artistic, economic, spiritual, environmental.

"When I set out to record All These Dreams, I had a distinct vision of what I wanted the record to sound like. It was a cocktail of the Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell, Nilsson vibes that you can hear right there on the surface," Combs says. "Canyons of My Mind is much more personal. It’s a testament to my acceptance of who I am as a man, and who I am becoming.” The record’s sonic adventurousness bears witness to that evolution, as well as to some big changes in his personal life. Between All These Dreams and Canyons, Combs married his longtime girlfriend Kristin, with whom he honeymooned for six weeks in the Minnesota wilderness. “She walks through her life exuding such open-mindedness and kindness,” Combs says. “I can’t help but watch in awe. She lets me be whoever I want to be, and that’s new to me. And quite refreshing, and freeing.”

The quiet struggles and satisfactions of carving out an identity in a world gone wrong are palpable throughout the album. Whether questing through the labyrinth of his own spiritual yearning, (“Heart of Wonder”), recreating a rail rider’s full-body sensation of freedom beneath an azure Montana sky (“Rose Colored Blues”), imagining a near-future dystopia where the very idea of green spaces has been annihilated (“Dirty Rain”), or channeling the desire of a peeping Tom who has fallen in love with his sylvan quarry (“Hazel”), Combs refines the vulnerable vagabond persona he mastered on All These Dreams while pushing it beyond those boundaries, into a more pastoral realm aligned with artists like Nick Drake and Tim Buckley. The idea of the artist’s creative life as an ecosystem — one just as in need of cultivation and care as our own imperiled world — informs much ofCanyons. For Combs, the quest to sustain his own capacity to create on a daily basis is what drives him. “I want to create for the rest of my life — writing, singing, painting,” he says. “I also want my life to include a family, a house, and kids. Seeking out other artists who’ve been able to keep the lights on without compromising their art – that keeps me inspired.”

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Skyway Man, Seen Comin’ From A Mighty Eye LP & Digital Label: YK Records/Light in the Attic Release date: Feb. 24, 2017

For the last decade, James Wallace & the Naked Light recorded and released music from the fringes of Music City USA, touring all over with a singular vision and purpose. All the while, James Wallace’s name figured in as a trusted companion to a few scenes in particular: the Spacebomb sound coming out of his hometown Richmond, Virginia alongside old friends Natalie Prass and Matthew E. White; inside the new Nashville “underground:” where his bands’ magnetic performance listed them as a favorite among Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard; producing records, occasionally filling in on keys with cult-treasured Promised Land Sound; and roaming with the Oakland collective of songwriters centered around a converted school bus who travel under the banner “Splendor All Around.” But now the name is Skyway Man. Solo tours in Japan and China, a new batch of songs intertwined with his fascination with UFO religion, signaled a shift in direction. His inner mercury nudged him toward a new role, and the name Skyway Man rose to the surface again and again. Was it the trickster of mythology, the soul of some eternally missing astronaut, or the old singing storyteller trying to get through?

Wallace possesses a knack for getting caught up in outlandish events - discovering a trove of mysterious letters written by a Ufologist to a woman, describing the New Jerusalem and the 4th dimension, or months spent playing Mahjong in a smokey trailer behind Opryland, working as a Mandarin interpreter for Chinese Ice carvers in Nashville. This knack also extends to orchestrating outlandish events, getting interesting people on board in his endeavors–sweet-talking the flow of life into altering its course. Time for a new name and new record. Seen Comin' From a Mighty Eye is a dense undertaking, recorded in different locations, simmering influences, channeling all the correct energies, paying the people and spirits who need to be paid, finishing the work the right way over the slow course of time. He recorded the last Naked Light record in Matthew E. White’s attic, and returned to that revered spot to track this new psych opera about strange futures, haunted pasts, and the Mighty Eye in the sky. Spacebomb house bassist and composer Cameron Ralston provided the horn arrangements and Spacebomb house drummer Pinson Chanselle sat at the kit. Wallace sang, compiled and mixed back in Nashville. It’s the usual stew of B-movie scifi, cosmic American boogie, psychedelic folk and it’s apocalyptically good, focused and potent, an immersive fully realized song cycle and visionary sonic structure.

From his modest rancher in Bordeaux on the Cumberland River, the lights of downtown Nashville are visible at night, shining sweetly or casting a lurid glow depending on atmospheric conditions and the viewer’s mood. Music City is changing fast, but James Wallace is invested in its community and spirit–the true believers, auteur session aces and acid cowboys and cowgirls who need each other to survive the sweltering industrial music machine. Skyway Man transcends this landscape, tapping into an older, more spiritual commerce. Seen Comin' From a Mighty Eye offers the kind of music you would want on the radio for a first or last kiss, the incidental music from some forgotten Spielberg adventure, a soundtrack for the later (not quite latter) days of earth. If lightning strikes and the car radio explodes, it might just be part of the track. Music for driving along the skyway, and thank god the skyway is made of music anyway.

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The Deslondes, The Deslondes CD, LP & Digital Label: New West Records Release date: June 9, 2015

The Deslondes are a New Orleans-based band, whose raw, stripped-down sound springs to mind a country-meets-Southern-R&B hybrid rooted partly in the Texas singer/songwriter tradition, partly on the weathered floor of a Louisiana dance hall.

The group, comprised of Sam Doores (vocals/guitar), Riley Downing (vocals/guitar), Dan Cutler (vocals/stand-up bass), Cameron Snyder (vocals/percussion) and John James Tourville (pedal steel/fiddle), is a true democratic collective.

“Even before we started this group,” says Doores, “when I was just playing with Cameron, we always had the idea that it would be fun to be in a band where there were multiple singers and multiple songwriters, and where everybody had a voice and can play multiple instruments — a true collaboration that’s greater than the sum of its parts and is still cohesive.”

The Deslondes is the band’s self-titled debut on venerable New West Records. This freshman effort has already picked up pre-release praise from the likes of NPR’s resident critic Ann Powers, who spotlighted their first single, “Fought the Blues and Won,” and called the fivesome “deft assemblers of a sound that traverses decades and style with humble grace.”

“A creative balance between five different people is naturally a precarious one,” says Cutler. “There’s a lot of push and pull going on at all times. The Deslondes are more democratic than any band I’ve ever been in, and most bands I’ve witnessed out in the world. There are many benefits though and from an audience perspective there is plenty of variety and a lot of things to pay attention to. It also adds a bit of healthy competition to the mix, which is a good motivator for the band.”

“One of the major pluses of being a collective,” Snyder notes, “is that we always have a lot of material to work with. And with five songwriters and four singers, we are able to reflect a lot of influences in our sound.” Adds Downing, “I feel like we’re all open to anything, if it feels right, whether it’s a slow, sad country song or a fast barnburner of a rock ’n’ roll song.”

“We all have different strengths,” continues Downing. “I didn’t even know how to harmonize when I joined this band, but Dan taught me how by playing me a whole bunch of Swan Silvertones, and old a cappella gospel stuff, pulling out the different parts, till it all kind of started making sense. Cameron and Dan are definitely the top harmonizers of the band. I’m lucky that I get to sing somewhat naturally, almost talk-singing, and those guys come up right underneath you and make it sound more powerful and really help your voice sit right.”

Referencing the piano-fueled style of album opener “Fought the Blues and Won,” which recalls Jerry Lee’s bluesy Nashville period of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Downing says, “That’s definitely Sam.”

As you might expect with a group made up of multiple front-people, The Deslondes’ history is a delightfully tortured one to recount. Doores met Snyder while attending college in the state of Washington, and all northwestern bets were off once Sam read Woody Guthrie’s autobiography,Bound for Glory, and became so subsumed with it that he quit school to head to New Orleans with Snyder and another friend. Along the way they formed a band, The Broken Wing Routine, and attended the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Oklahoma, where they met Missouri native Downing. In New Orleans, Doores met Cutler and formed The Tumbleweeds, while Snyder and Tourville met on tour with The Longtime Goners.

Listeners won’t mistake the creativity of The Deslondes — named after the street in the Holy Cross neighborhood in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward where the band formed — for any other major city’s creative hub. “Behind my house on Deslonde Street, there’s the old Holy Cross High School, which has been abandoned since the flood,” Doores explains. “There’s a lot of open space, and since it’s the last house on the levee right on the Mississippi River, it’s kind of like being in the country. We’ve got chickens in the backyard and a whole lot of space, it’s peaceful here.”

Except, of course, when the band is in the house and making the kind of racket they do on a song like “Less Honkin’, More Tonkin’,” which Downing came up with based on his love for George Jones’ seminal, fast-driving Starday Records period. Which raises the question: What is this strong a strain of country doing in New Orleans? Even with NOLA being its own nation — especially musically — country twang still seems a little out of place there. It won’t if The Deslondes and their pedal steel-playing friends have their way, though.

“I think we all learned a lot in this city,” says Tourville. “That’s probably the strongest thing that comes through, us all honing our skills here.”

“When I first moved here, I didn’t see or hear about a lot of country bands,” adds Cutler. “Now they seem to be everywhere! There’s always been country music in New Orleans though. Jimmie Rodgers had a little old home down here, as did probably a thousand other yodeling hobos over the years. And of course Willie and Waylon and Merle and Hank all spent time here and sang about New Orleans. There’s also a lot of homegrown country over the years, in town as well as in St. Bernard and the West Bank and of course Baton Rouge and western Louisiana. Even a lot of old jazz songs were borrowed from old country songs. Anyone who tells you New Orleans is not a country music town is dead wrong.”

“We’re definitely influenced by the old ‘50s and ‘60s R&B of New Orleans quite a bit, from Huey ‘Piano’ Smith to Fats Domino,” says Doores. “But the city also has a huge history of country music being around, even though, when I first came to town, there wasn’t a huge country scene going on.” The Deslondes and some of their friends and affiliated acts have been a part of that shift back. For a city that already had a healthy jug-band scene, why not add a thriving country scene, too, right?

Whatever you call their music, one thing is for certain: It has the transformative power to turn clubs into dance halls and bars into honky-tonks. “Whenever we play a show in New Orleans, the whole floor is filled with people dancing … whereas in other towns, people nod their heads and smile,” Doores laughs. “Dancing is the focal point of the whole trad-jazz scene here and the Cajun music scene and the country music scene. The dancing culture in New Orleans definitely influences us.”

While most music buffs will come to the album without any preconceptions, there may be a sense of anticipation among fans of Hurray for the Riff Raff. Doores and Cutler were part of that estimable group for years, pulling double-duty as The Deslondes evolved into what they are today. “We were sister bands and traveled on the road together for a long time,” says Doores. “There was a period of time where it worked out wonderfully, and Dan and I were able to play two sets a night. But there came a point where the bands were fighting over our time and we had to decide to just be in one. It felt right to focus on the one that we started and that reflected our creative vision the most. It was sad, because I enjoy the role of being a backup musician, too, and loved playing with them but Riff Raff is very much one person’s voice and vision. It being the brainchild of Alynda (Lee Segarra) is part of what’s amazing about it.”

The Deslondes then is a very different vision, one where five individualists can come together and create something they couldn’t possibly do without each other. “We’re constantly trying to sound more and more like ourselves all the time,” says Doores. “Every band wants to say that they can’t really be categorized, but we really do try to combine all the elements that we love, most of them older American traditions. Along the way, there’ve been certain songs where everyone could say, ‘That song sounds like a gospel song’ or ‘This one sounds like a country song’ or ‘This one sounds like New Orleans R&B.’ Eventually we want it to have it be more of a cohesive sound where every song just kind of has elements of all of those and it’s less piecemeal. Hopefully we’re getting closer all the time to ‘That song sounds like a Deslondes song.’”

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The Deslondes, "Fought the Blues and Won" b/w "Yum Yum" Vinyl 45 and digital singles Label: New West Records Release date: Feb. 17, 2015 Buy on iTunes

Sam Doores: guitar, piano, vocals, tambourine Riley Downing: acoustic guitar, vocals Dan Cutler: bass, vocals John James: pedal steel, electric guitar Cameron Snyder: drums, organ, vocals "Yum Yum" written by Joe Tex "Fought The Blues And Won," written by Riley Downing, arranged by The Deslondes Produced by Andrija Tokic and The Deslondes Recorded at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, Tennessee

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COIN004: Andrew Combs, All These Dreams Available on CD and LP Release date: Jan. 26 (EU)/March 3 (USA) Buy on iTunes

Like a character in a dreary West Coast short story by Raymond Carver, Nashville songwriter Andrew Combs moves through a hazy modern world, trying to find the meaning in life on his sophomore album, All These Dreams. “I sometimes find myself wondering what the hell I am doing with my life and what it all amounts to,” Combs says, explaining the album’s opening track, “Rainy Day Song,” which sets the narrative tone for the album. “Although I don’t know the answer to this, I believe it lies in the path I take, not the actual destination,” says Combs. “I can’t say whether I’m looking for a god, or love, or art, or all of the above, all I know is I am wading through some murky water trying to find the answer.”

While the album may adhere to this darker internal script, its musical inspiration comes from vintage 1970s production: California-tinged AM Gold; the Laurel Canyon tones of Jackson Browne and The Eagles; and Paul Simon’s Muscle Shoals-laced R&B funk. And with its sweeping string arrangements and sophisticated charm, the album evokes other earlier eras, like 1960s Hollywood or Roy Orbison-era Nashville Sound. Listeners may also hear the faint glimmer of male vocalists like Jim Reeves, Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, perhaps even Frank Sinatra.

All of it amounts to a huge step forward for the Nashville-based singer-songwriter, who released his debut album, Worried Man, in 2012, which American Songwriter named one of the year’s best, while Southern Living praised Combs for being “well on his way to becoming a preeminent voice in his genre.”

For the new album, Combs worked with producers Jordan Lehning and Skylar Wilson — who recently co-produced Caitlin Rose’s The Stand-In and have worked with Justin Townes Earle — and recorded the album in Nashville with many of his longtime musical collaborators, including lead guitarist Jeremy Fetzer and pedal steel guitarist Spencer Cullum Jr. (of the instrumental duo Steelism).“I feel like this record has a much different thread that ties the songs together than my first album, Worried Man, which was more raw and bare-bones, in songwriting as well as production,” says Combs. “All These Dreams explores more complex arrangements, lyrics and musical tones.”

With straight-talking narrators and glimpses of poetic realism, All These Dreams at times might recall the gritty Southern literature of writers like Larry Brown and Barry Hannah, both of whom Combs cites as influences. On “Pearl,” the songwriter celebrates the underbelly of society, while on “Suwannee County,” his narrator strikes up a mundane conversation with a Florida fisherman at a gas station, which leads to a deeper discussion about spirituality. There’s plenty of dark humor here too. On “Strange Bird,” Combs sings about an elusive lover, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, and uses a buoyant arrangement to explore some unusual musical effects, such as a whistling solo.

Combs has been identified with a new crop of Nashville-based songwriters, who have also looked back to the ’70s for songwriting inspiration. Combs is featured in the upcoming documentary Heartworn Highways Revisited, alongside Nashville-based songwriters like John McCauley, Jonny Fritz and Robert Ellis — as well as one of his heroes, Guy Clark. While he acknowledges his debt to fellow Texans like Clark, Mickey Newbury and Townes Van Zandt, Combs is also moving in a new direction, carving out his own singular path as an artist. 

The 28-year-old songwriter is also quick to point out that though there is a similar sense of camaraderie in Nashville today, “The songs and writers were much better in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.” “I’m not saying there aren’t talented people in Nashville now, but I don’t think we pay near as much attention to the song as they did back then,” adds Combs. “Maybe it’s ’cause we’re too busy tweeting about our latest gig or wardrobe purchase.”

Ultimately, All These Dreams finds Combs in a league of his own, wholly focused on perfecting his own songwriting and storytelling, and delivering it all in a rich musical style that’s much more than the sum of its parts. 

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COIN Digital Single: Andrew Combs, "Foolin'"  Release date: December 2, 2014 Buy on iTunes

“Foolin’” is the first single from Andrew Combs’ second album, All These Dreams, due out Jan. 26 (EU) and March 3 (North America). The song premiered on Rolling Stone Country, who called it “a shimmering, Orbison-like arrangement.” In celebration of the release, Combs will join Justin Townes Earle on a series of winter European dates and, in April, will perform at the 2015 Stagecoach Festival in Indio, CA. Additional U.S. dates to be announced shortly.

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COIN 003: Andrew Combs & Steelism, "Emily"/"China Plate" Split 7"  Release date: October 29, 2013 Buy on vinyl

Nashville songwriter Andrew Combs and country-funk instrumental duo Steelism (Jeremy Fetzer, Spencer Cullum Jr.) have teamed up for a split 7" on Electric Western/Coin Records. The songs were recorded at East Nashville's Toy Box Studio, shortly after both acts performed at the 2013 Newport Folk Festival.

Combs' "Emily" was co-written Jabe Beyer and has become a crowd favorite. Steelism's "China Plate" (cockney rhyming slang for "mate") was inspired by Dick Dale's surf-rock and the western synth wizardry of Hugo Montenegro. Cullum's steel guitar was played with a sitar bar for an Eastern feel while Fetzer used three vintage Fender amps. Both songs were produced by Andrew Combs and Steelism and cut to 2" tape through the MCI console that lived in Criteria studio from 1968–’78 (where "Hotel California" was recorded).

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COIN 002: Andrew Combs, Worried Man Release date: October 30, 2012 Buy on CD | Buy on iTunes

Andrew Combs is a songwriter, guitarist, and singer who lives in Nashville. Originally from Dallas, Combs is inspired by the great tradition of Texas songwriting exemplified by Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Mickey Newbury.

Following the success of the 2010 EP Tennessee Time, Coin Records released the 7-inch single “Big Bad Love” in May 2012 and Combs’ debut full-length album, Worried Man, on October 30, 2012.

The new album caps off a busy year for Combs who signed as a staff writer with Razor & Tie Music Publishing in July 2012. Combs was also tapped to play the 2012 Americana Music Association festival and has played and toured with Shovels & Rope, Jonny Corndawg, Caitlin Rose, Houndmouth, Robert Ellis, and Jason Isbell.

While Tennessee Time displayed a decidedly Nashville sound, Worried Man draws on a folk-rock sound galvanized by the reemergence of authentic American music coming from bands like L.A.’s Dawes. The album was co-produced by Mike Odmark and features guest appearances from Caitlin Rose and Nikki Lane, along with the core band of Jeremy Fetzer, Spencer Cullum, Jr., Michael Rinne, Micah Hulscher, and Jon Radford.

Equal parts rough-and-ready Chicago blues, Planet Waves-era Dylan, and vintage Nashville folk, Combs’ live show has often been described as Merle Haggard’s stripped-down country rock meets the tightly wound garage punk of Detroit’s The MC5. In short, they call it “country soul swag,” and you should too.

Combs is also part of a Nashville renaissance in country-folk music that stems from the slicked-up rural country gems of Justin Townes Earle and the close-knit indie folk-rock of Caitlin Rose. Searching through this puzzle you might also find an answer to why Jack White operates a ‘50s-inspired record shop and recording studio in Nashville and why the city has a buzzing punk scene. Maybe you’d even stumble into Combs and his band getting wild and fuzzy at a house party. Or maybe you’ll see Combs solo—on stage and alone as all hell—singing songs that have prompted middle-aged women to ask him, “Are you gonna be alright?”

Well, the Texas lad is just fine, thank you, and we think you’ll agree when you hear more of the sounds that are coming out of this East Nashville hotbed of dusty country soul, done up right.

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COIN 001: Andrew Combs, "Big Bad Love" 7" Release date: April 10, 2012 Buy on Vinyl (SOLD OUT)

500-copy limited edition 45 rpm 7” vinyl, screen-printed and hand-numbered, designed by Andrew Combs and Kristen Beck.