Nashville rockers
Country Westerns
have shared "
Times To Tunnels
" and its accompanying video from their self-titled debut album (out
June 26, 2020
on
Fat Possum Records)
.
Glide Magazine
debuted the track, calling it
"big, soulful and melodic without sacrificing any of the rawness that makes Country Westerns quintessential barroom rockers."
Hear the track
HERE
, watch the video
HERE
and pre-order the album
HERE
.
The band has postponed its run of 2020 headline U.S. tour dates. Stay tuned for more news about upcoming dates.
American Songwriter
broke the news of Country Westerns' Fat Possum signing and debuted "
Gentle Soul
," calling it "the band’s not-so-subtle entrance to the Nashville rock scene" and praising its "poetic punk rock sneer."
Nashville Scene
also weighed in, lauding the band's "
rocking post-Neil Young sound" and "casually literate songs." Shortly thereafter,
BrooklynVegan
noted that "Country Westerns make twangy rock n’ roll with a punk energy that is in the same tradition as The Replacements or Old ’97s or Bottle Rockets."
Even if you don’t know their names, you likely know their work. Drummer
Brian Kotzur
starred in
Harmony Korine
’s film
Trash Humpers
and was a member of
Silver Jews
. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Joseph Plunket led Brooklyn legends
The Weight
, with a bass-playing side-hustle for Atlanta's
Gentleman Jesse
. Plunket relocated to Nashville ten years ago and opened a bar. It was there, in a town teeming with solo artists and hired guns, that the two bonded over their shared desire to be in an actual band.
In 2016, Plunket and Kotzur spent a year in Kotzur’s garage writing riffs and tracking demos. During those hazy, late nights they began to hone their sound. Eventually, with a handful of songs and the encouragement of their friends, they began their quest for the third ‘Country Western’. After some time playing with different lineups—early recordings feature Reece Lazarus from Bully—their friend
Sabrina Rush
, another rock-n-roller for life, joined them on bass. Rush plays violin and is a member of the Louisville band
State Champion
, but had never played bass. The instrument came naturally to her and her harmonic bass lines were a perfect fit.
The first recordings with the complete lineup were made in Nashville with engineer Andrija Tokic, but the band was soon convinced to leave Nashville to record a couple of songs with Country Westerns enthusiast
Matt Sweeney
(
Iggy Pop, Chavez
). With Sweeney as the band’s producer they set out for New York and did their first session at Brooklyn’s Strange Weather Studios, with Daniel Schlett. The Strange Weather recordings piqued the interest of indie record label Fat Possum. The band returned to Strange Weather to finish the record and, shortly afterward, signed a deal with Fat Possum Records.
On their debut album, Plunket delivers his words with a cool, raspy bravado and a hint of twang, summoning the spirits of the cities in which the tracks were made. The lyrics bend towards poetry and punk rock sneer in equal measure and lines such as “Maybe I ain’t smart, but I ain’t lying” set the tone for the entire album. The songs are full of insistent guitar riffs played on an electric twelve-string, the jangle either mitigating the edge or pushing it further.
Kotzur and Rush form a tight-knit rhythm section, alternately weaving around and syncing up with one another. They build the foundations of the songs with dynamic tempo, creating a full sound with Plunket—one that is bigger than you might expect for a three-piece.
