A familiar name from Murfreesboro’s nineties/early-aughts Spongebath Records-era, Gary Welch (former bassist of The Katies) has recently released a full-length solo album, They Got Wolves Up There!, out of current Murfreesboro record label Twin Oak Recordings. The project actually captures two versions of the album: its live debut, performed at innovative Murfreesboro audio design and production house Jackson Pollock Microphone on Sept. 6, 2025, and the studio version, released the day before. Both are exceptional.
Welch, accompanied by a powerhouse of local musicians, realized the live/studio notion for a double-header—one a hazy, synth-rich studio dreamscape, the other a grunge-tinted, sweat-soaked live blowout—together highlighting the strength of both Twin Oak and Jackson Pollock Microphone as modern forces in Murfreesboro’s creative evolution.
Twin Oak Recordings, run by Jason Dietz, has a history of putting trust in fuzz-heavy, sludge-metal bass to accentuate the variety of genres run through its studio. But for Welch’s release, Twin Oak switches it up a bit to release the studio version of eight stellar tracks of synth-heavy, shimmering psychedelia, a prediction of what Heaven will be like, with hazy harmonies provided by backing vocalist Lizette Kehrer, along with with Gail Johnson, Jeff Keeran, Jason Moore and Jason Rawlings.
The live rendition is all rocked out with a souped-up electric, Murfreesboro power rock band, Casey Strength and Aaron Swisher on lead guitars, Dietz on electric and upright bass, Self’s Jason Rawlings on the drums, and keyboardist Jeff Keeran.
Coming out of the depths, the self-titled opening track begins with a layer of drums, a bowed upright bass and the album’s weightiest synthesizer string section.
I just want to feel like you feel every day . . . I just wanna love like you love, every day, Welch drones along to the buildup.
A seemingly oscillating keyboard sound is added, as well as a grungy electric guitar.
Then come the angelic background vocals of Lizette Kehrer; a fiddle kicks in, too!
In crescendo, the glorious, countrified storm of all Welch’s musicians are all of a sudden backed by a honky-tonk band at the celestial peak of this incredible opening track’s rise, building climactically in layers, strings squealing up into the stars.
I think there’s even an accordion in there at some point. Holy moly.
This album runs the gamut of life, within which includes predictions of Heaven . . . if Heaven has a fuzz pedal.
“Cruel Ambrosio” spins ’60s-style hippie-pop heartbreak in a swirling acoustic rhythm and a “why-don’t-you-love-me?” energy. There’s so many dudes on riffs in this old thrash-chunker, the man behind the knobs shouldn’t know what to do with it all, but manages, somehow, in mixing mastery. In the live version, Swisher and Strength make the show with their respective guitar solos.
Welch navigates himself out of a domestic situation in “The Dirty Bishop,” a soft ’80s rocker highlighted by another Strength solo and Keenan’s lush, calming synth strings counterpoint.
By “Magna Cum Loude” the band hits an uptempo jam lifted by its evident joy in performance.
Musically, Welch’s They Got Wolves Up There! runs a wide stylistic range, while lyrically it displays mature and upbeat sentiments from a man aiming towards comfort in age, speaking from what he’s accumulated of it, all with an open-mindedness and seemingly calm approach to the whole experience.
Find Gary Welch’s They Got Wolves Up There! across the icons at Deezer, Apple Music, iHeart, Amazon and Anghami, with videos found on YouTube.
