The Tender Things

One Liner: Country with a heavy dose of great southern rock.

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, saying country, Americana, and southern rock
Home:  Austin!

Poster Position: 20
Weekend Two Only.

Saturday 1pm on the Tito's Stage.

Thoughts:  A fun mix between country and southern rock stuff.  Like, the guitar in "The New Mission Bell" is straight Allman Brothers, but the tune for "How You Make a Fool" sounds like something Waylon would have sung over in the 70's.  This stuff is rad.

The "bandleader" is a dude named Jesse Ebaugh, who was in fellow ACL poster band The Heartless Bastards for a decade, and it sounds like he left that band to pursue this new one.  Their bio on their label's website also says that Patty Griffin and Robert Ellis helped out on their most recent record.  Those are some great collaborators.  Unfortunately, the band name makes me think of a name a nun might have for the male anatomy.

"The Secrets We Could Tell" made me laugh out loud.  And hell, any song with Patty Griffin on it is going to be a good tune.  "Naked in the pastor's pool, summer moon across our skin, doing cocaine in the basement of a cop bar after hours with policemen..."

But calling this country doesn't quite hit the mark.  It has steel guitar and fiddle and all that, but it also has some funky bass and real guitar work and some stuff that removes it from the usual twang-fest.  Feels retro, even if I don't know who to compare it to.  And they feel like they're having fun making it too.

Two albums - 2020's How You Make a Fool and 2017's The Tender Things.  The new album is significantly better, IMO.

"Sister Elizabeth" is the only tune with more than 20k streams.  Pretty great though.

Oh, wait, you thought you had seen the worst music video of all time?  You are extremely wrong.  That bass line is the freaking jam.  Some just the good ol' boys slinking badassery right there.  Dig it.  I also dig that a buddy said, "I can make you a video for, like, a 6 pack, on my little brother's laptop in five minutes."  "Oh Rosie" is their second most streamed tune, but it doesn't have a video, and this one does, so you get "How to Make a Fool," the title track from the new album.

Is that Green Pastures?  That house is cool as hell.  Also, another good song where the bass line makes the whole damn thing for me.  I absolutely need to dance when that track comes on.  Also, I don't drink enough jug wine.  I need more jug wine in my life.  I may need to be the kind of guy who has back porch jam sessions with my attractive buddies before I can drink jug wine and not get crushing hangovers.  Let's find out!

I'd absolutely go see this.  Really enjoying it.