Nashville bluegrass quartet The Tennessee Warblers finally released a pre-pandemic project from October 2018 that was “to be the Tennessee Warblers’ debut record of the year 2019” but, as halted by events of the last four years, it’s absolutely 2022’s debut record of the year for Valentine’s Day 2023. And, whether covering as bluegrass preservationists or venturing away from such standard practice with band originals, the 12 tracks on The Tennessee Warblers’ Small Town Songs follow that old, well-known tradition of young men’s drive to woo the women.
To preface, we’ve got the core of the band, co-writers John Beck (vocals, mandolin, fiddle) and Adam Dalton (vocals, guitar) writing The Tennessee Warblers’ first original, “Restless,” before picking up Dean Marold (upright bass) and Charles Butler (banjo, Dobro) to round out a minimally, but properly equipped bluegrass quartet that took up residency at the Sutler Saloon in Nashville four years ago. After fine-tuning the lineup and set-list-become-track-list, the quartet recorded in ideal ambience in the hallway of a Madison, Tennessee shotgun cabin in October 2018. Small Town Songs technically became a Nathan Yarborough/Leo Roriz mobile production, then, within that cabin overlooking the Cumberland River.
The Warblers kick off Small Town Songs with a Valentine-appropriate tune (previously recorded by George Jones and Roger Miller) “Nothing Can Stop Me Loving You,” featuring a mid-tempo chug provided by the acoustic guitar and walking upright bass, reinforced by the looser, but still disciplined strumming and picking of Butler’s banjo and Beck’s mandolin. The two are seemingly dueling at the same time as completing the quartet’s chug-rhythm foundation. The full-fledged, hyperactive picking aspect of their technique takes off in the song’s bridges, of course, where the energy peaks. In Warbler country, it’s that skillful yet loose mandolin and banjo that hold up Dalton’s crisp vocals with these backing hooligans hollerin’ harmony.
Remaining covers on Small Town Songs honor John Prine’s “Grandpa Was a Carpenter,” Dr. Mac Rebennack’s (AKA Dr. John) “Such a Night,” The Faces’ “Ooh La La” and Los Lobos’ “Evangeline” (which finds Butler switching to Dobro). The bluegrass staple “Moonshiner” stylistically flexes The Tennessee Warblers’ less disciplined, non-traditional “picked/strummed” combo style again, hazily invoking The Infamous Stringdusters covering Pink Floyd’s airy, pre-Dark Side of the Moon track “Fearless” (it gets jammy). A solid version of Grateful Dead’s “Valerie” finishes the album.
Warbler originals throughout Small Town Songs include “Elliot’s Ice” (surely inspired by Kevin Hayes of Old Crow Medicine Show), a main squeeze’s homage in “Mandy,” the band’s ballad “Restless” and the Dalton-penned “Lament De Superman” and “She Don’t Mind.”
They ain’t exactly subtle, ladies. The whole album is somewhat sexually suggestive to a bluegrass degree, below skinemax in obviousness, but socially acceptable and classy enough to be public. It’s awesome. It’s young men using their craft to “blugrassically” chase tail. It’s a story as old as banjos.
Musically, the Tennessee Warblers flit between being loose and disciplined, which is difficult to do and remain bluegrass. That magic happens when knowing what to do is already muscle memory.
The Tennessee Warblers’ Small Town Songs can be found across the icons on Spotify, Pandora, iHeart, Amazon, Apple and Linktree, and through tnwarblers.com; the Tennessee Warblers’ gold mine, though, is found on their YouTube channel.
