Corduroy Road ‘breathes new life into an old genre’

Courtesy The Corduroy Road

Originally from Kentucky, The Corduroy Road relocated to Athens. John Keane influenced its upcoming record.

For those who are wondering, a “corduroy road” is not a street made out of ribbed pants.

“A Corduroy Road is long and bumpy, but if you stay the course, you’ll get where you’re going,” banjo player and vocalist Drew Carmen said in regard to his band’s name.

The road may be long, but tonight it brings bluegrass bands The Corduroy Road and Trampled by Turtles to Athens, where a ravenous taste for live music is sure to ease bumps met along the way.

TCR was first conceived when childhood friends Carmen and Dylan Solise started playing music together in Kentucky. However, their relocation to Athens and upcoming record under the influence of legend John Keane (R.E.M., Widespread Panic) makes them as local a band as any.

In addition to the opportunity to work with Keane, this providential move to Athens facilitated the addition of drummer John Cable and bassist Tim Helms.

TCR draws its influences from early country and folk music, but the energy of its live performances breathes new life into an old genre.

“Folks come to a our live shows to see a performance. We try to be as entertaining and lively as possible, but the most important thing during a live show is to engage the audience, make them involved and participants in the experience just as much as ourselves,” Carmen said.

In addition to gracing audiences across the Southeast with lively performances over the past few months, the band has completed its first full-length album, “Love is War.”

The record conveys the enthusiasm of live performances while adding a new level of musical sophistication through a variety of new instruments including the organ, fiddle and dobro, a type of specialized guitar.

“The roots are still the same; we’ve just added a lot more meat on the bone,” Carmen said.

Tonight’s other featured band, Trampled by Turtles, started as the acoustic side project of five local musicians in Duluth, Minn.

Gradually, the members’ other musical endeavors fell away, and they realized TBT’s potentially bright future as a band.

TBT recorded its first album, “Songs from a Ghost Town,” in an old Catholic church located in Duluth’s rural hills. This album’s live recording with minimal overdubs set the tone for the band’s four following albums.

“We’re just much better when we play live together. I also like the little bit of a rough edge it can give a song. Not so polished,” guitarist and vocalist Dave Simonett said.

The band’s most recent album, “Duluth,” was recorded in the small mining town of Sparta, Minn. While the record is a sort of tribute to the town where TBT began, it includes new instruments such as the drums and electric guitar that give the band a richer, more varied sound.

“We’ve gotten much better at playing with each other, which is bound to happen to any band over a few years. I think my songwriting has evolved a bit since we started.

“We kind of started with more hokey, traditional sounding stuff – a lot of songs about drinkin’ and what not. I think with the last couple records it’s gotten more honest,” Simonett said.