King Corduroy
An artist as unique as his music, King Corduroy embodies the best of the South, melding together east, west, and everything in between.
King of Cosmic Southern Soul
An artist as unique as his music, King Corduroy embodies the best of the South, melding together east, west, and everything in between.
Kurt McMahan, aka King Coruroy, wears every place he’s ever lived on his sleeve like a map, and his musical sound evokes the combined melodies of the cities where he grew and learned musicianship.
The three main areas that contribute to King Corduroy’s artistry are in Alabama, Texas, and Southern California.
Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, Alabama (where he spent his childhood) stick out as cities that emphasize the importance of family, community, and accountability. However, those cities were not 100% conducive for his creativity, due to common close-mindedness attempting to put people in boxes.
Austin, Texas (where he lived for 6 years) acted as a music college for King Corduroy. As soon as King Corduroy moved there, he realized there was a vast world of knowledge in writing and performing music.
In California (where he stayed for 4 years), King Corduroy lived in the beautiful and scenic Topanga Canyon, right outside of Los Angeles. The region is a true melting pot; walking into a room, automatically several varying languages fill the atmosphere. Hosting so many colorful cultures, LA and the surrounding regions offer a smorgasbord of food to experience, as well as authentic art and music. Plus, in LA King Corduroy stood out more from the crowd than he did in Texas, since his look radiates classic Southern Rock.
King Corduroy also lived in Baja, Mexico for 4 months. Several of the sites he’s lived, including Baja, he refers to as vortex towns, which are particular towns where like-minded people are drawn to each other like spiritual magnets. These cosmically connected cities pushed King Corduroy’s musical expressiveness to where he is today, Nashville.
As for King Corduroy’s music influences, he literally wears them on his arm. His ink-laden skin exhibits images that indicate the likes of Levon Helm, Townes Van Zandt, Stax Records, Gran Parson, Leon Russell, and The Rolling Stones’s Exile on Main Street.
Equally as important as an artist’s influences is an artist’s name, and the origins of King Corduroy’s name are surprisingly humble.
While on the hunt for a perfect moniker, he fiddled with the name King Biscuit, evoking the King Biscuit Flower Hour, until his eye landed on a (metaphorically) glimmering corduroy jacket in the room. His roommate’s enthusiastic approval officially legitimized the new pseudonym.
King Corduroy’s bio on HOME’s directory and ReverbNation describes his sound as “Cosmic Southern Soul” using such phrases as “the swamp sound of muscle shoals,” “the soul of Stax in Memphis,” “the funk of The Crescent City,” and “Country twang with a Cosmic message.”
As these are not typical, everyday phrases, the following terms have been defined to provide more insight.
Muscle Shoals: Jerry Wexler, a partner of Atlantic Records, had recently signed Aretha Franklin when he took her to Muscle Shoals, a swampy city in northern Alabama right along the Tennessee River. The swampy sound of the region seeped right into her song, “Chain of Fools.”
Swampy Sound: A style of music that is syncopated, or kind of behind the beat, while incorporating blues with a bit of twang.
Stax: Referring to the typical sound of a record store in Memphis called Stax Records. Their music sounded similar to Detroit Motown, except stripped down with fewer instruments while having more funk and groove. It includes certain sounds such as Otis Redding’s horn sounds.
Crescent City: Another name for New Orleans, Louisiana.
Country Twang: I assume we all know what this is.
Cosmic Message: Derived from the storytelling tradition of Country, it is a message delivered lyrically that tunes into the cosmos, acknowledges that we’re all connected to everyone else in this universe, and that we should look to everybody else with love.
One of King Corduroy’s songs featured on his album Austin Soul Stew is called “The Ballad of Douglas McAdams.” I asked King Corduroy if Douglas McAdams is a real or fictional character.
His response:
“The person is real. I had a friend doing a songwriting thing at a random spot in Austin, so I brought my first ever guitar with me, which was an old guitar from my Grandfather in Alabama. It was a 1935 Kalamazoo, which is a model that used to be made by Gibson.
So there was a cat that listened to me play and afterwards was itching to tell me about his guitar from his dad. Basically, everything in the song’s story is true, though the first line of the song is janky because of the way the guy told me the story.
But the thing he was telling me was that his father had a pre-fire Gibson, that the guitar was made in the original factory before it burned down. The truth is that Martin is the factory that burned down.
Anyway, this guy wanted to talk about the guitar, but he started talking about his dad instead. That’s when I started taking notes on my phone and asked the guy if I could use his story for a song. He said I could, so later I wrote the song.
Darry is the guy, his dad is Douglas McAdams, and everything in the song is everything he said.
Later on, I made a record with the song on it and went back to the same bar in Austin so that I could describe the guy to the people there in order to find him. Unfortunately, people at the bar didn’t know who he was.”
In any case, Darry and King Corduroy have blessed the listening world with an impressive ballad.
Like the inspiring old guitars and their colorful stories, King Corduroy seems like he could be from another decade. Although, he postulates that he is meant to be in the present, in order to keep the sounds of that day alive. Everything is cyclical, even in music.
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/kingcorduroy/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/king-corduroy/1106870998
Interviewed and written by Andra Ingram
Iron Vessel/Dylan James Smucker
Rock quad Iron Vessel evokes both classic and original sounds with a dynamic as unique as their look
Rock Revival Rogues
Rock quad Iron Vessel evokes both classic and original sounds with a dynamic as unique as their look
This particular article features an entire band rather than one Homie. Keeping in mind that one-on-one conversation is my strength, the following paragraphs are the result of simultaneously interviewing four male rock musicians in their mid to late 20s.
The interview occurred in late June, on a Saturday around 5:30pm. Saturday was the only day of the week between the four of them that they could all gather in one spot, due to their varying work schedules. As I arrived to HOME Headquarters, the sun glowed in orange and gold, low in the sky. My boyfriend tagged along with me for the interview, acting as my low-key bodyguard and innately occasionally engaged in the conversation.
Piece by piece the band arrived with their dinner in to-go containers and we gathered around the long, wooden coffee table in the lounge. Back in June, the coffee table sat parallel to the wall with hanging red and pink egg carton petals, and the brown and beige couch configured around the table facing one another. I perched myself on the (stage) left of the couch, my boyfriend chose to squat in a yellow, armless chair to my left, Dylan plopped on the right side of the plush brown couch beside me. Across from me, the other three members squeezed into the woven beige couch, with Caleb directly across from me, John in the middle, and Taylor occupied the end farthest from me.
Once assembled, they appeared to be in a black, wide-brimmed hat club, sporting the uniform of button down shirts, slim pants, and pointed leather boots. Eating salads while drinking beers, they were groomed in a mish-mash of long, hippie hair and hipster mustaches. Together, the band exuded a close and brotherly vibe: vocally playful with one another and communicating with an unspoken language. Two, in fact, are brothers.
The members are as follows:
DYLAN JAMES SMUCKER (lead vocals, guitar): The front man and email correspondence—I saw him the day before from afar at Musician’s Corner—he was walking around by himself and I was there as a volunteer (I never saw his face but I was certain I recognized his arm tattoos. When I asked, he confirmed it was indeed him that I saw). Music influences include: Zeppelin/Jimmy Page, and The Doors. By day he works freelance construction on properties. He prefers performing physical labor during warm seasons. When Fall comes around, he hibernates in a writing cave like a lyrical bear dreaming through the frigid season. For refreshment, his choice of bubbly poison is Sierra Nevada Torpedo.
CALEB SMUCKER (lead guitar): Dylan’s younger brother, and equally as heavily tattooed. Both he and Dylan grew up with a vocal performer father. Their dad owned several guitars that would lay around the house all the time; he taught Dylan how to play, and Dylan taught Caleb. By day Caleb wears a barista hat and creates latte art. In fact, he used to compete in latte competitions. Aside from his coffee love, his is favorite brew is Good People IPA.
TAYLOR PATTERSON (drums): The black sheep of the group, because he doesn’t strum strings and is the only one who thrives on Metallica. Both he and John reign from Franklin, having played in a pop-punk band together back in the day. Today, Taylor finds inspiration from Mars Volta, and during non-vampire hours he works as a farm manager/ranch manager, focusing on greener energy. Taylor likes to sip on Dale’s Pale Ale.
JOHN (vocals, bass): "The Irish guy," John had only been their bass player for six months—the bass player prior to him was a female who appeared to be very friendly with Dylan in old band photos. John admits he works as a Whole Foods minion for his day job. Specifically the foods department at the Cool Springs location, where rich and powerful people like the governor gather next door to eat pizza. As the Irish guy, John’s favorite beer is classic Guinness.
Since the conversation would frequently trail off the subject, maybe due to me asking them too many questions, the description above of the interview speaks as much about Iron Vessel as their answers to my questions do.
As a disclaimer, I did not take pictures or video footage—the descriptions are entirely from memory (so they may or may not be entirely accurate, but potentially biased).
The following Q&A I managed to salvage from my interview notes.
A: How long have you been in Nashville? Where did you grow up?
IRON VESSEL: As a band, we’ve been in Nashville for about 3 years, though half the band is from here. Caleb and Dylan moved here five years ago from Lancaster, PA, but formed the band 8 or 10 years ago back home. Once in Nashville, Taylor got involved right away, and John joined IV a few months ago. Now we’re in our final form. The reason we're here at HOME is because of Sam Jump, who we met at a protest.
A: What’s your music story?
TAYLOR: My cousin played drums, and she inspired me. At like 4 years old I asked for a drum set for Christmas and got a cheap MRS from an old music store over in 100 Oaks. Now the store is a Burlington. It had no cymbals, and I went to my three grandmothers’ houses on Christmas to get the whole set. They said to me, “We teamed up with Santa!”
JOHN: I started on drums and played to songs at a young age. I got a tiny pearl traveler set that had on dampening heads. I said to my parents, “this doesn’t sound right,” and they said, “we got the quiet ones so it wouldn’t be loud.” We switched them out later.
A: Is there a story behind the name “Iron Vessel”?
D: Kind of, it’s number 4 numerology stuff. January 4, four members, numerology of all the names. Plus, I liked the weighted sound of iron and wanted play some heavy rock and roll. For the symbol it would be IV (at this point Taylor blurted something along the lines of “look at her face, she has no idea what you’re talking about” referring to my facial expression as I typed Dylan’s response)
A: According to Bandsintown, you are currently on tour. Is that correct? (They had an Exit/In performance lined up for June 25)
DYLAN/CALEB: We haven’t played at Exit/In yet; we’re doing clubs still. Big bands will come through and play there, so we’ve wanted to play there since we moved. It was the first venue we was when we cam here; it’s just one you have to do.
A: Do you any pre-show/post-show rituals?
IV: We drink beers. Liquid courage, ya know? Listen to good music, talk about stuff
T: I listen to laidback r&b like D’Angelo and stuff. Ball Parks, Erykah Badu, Meshuggah when I'm tired, The Faceless
IV: (this is taken verbatim from my notes) “Try to hang out and kick it, Waffle House, Caleb lies down”
A: Who writes the lyrics usually? How does a song come about?
D: Caleb is writing some now. Usually I write solo, like a demo, and then the band changes it up and adds stuff, giving them the creative space to add and produce. We have a live studio album that we recorded in August, and we released it in January as an 8-song record. We did it in 5 days and just cranked it out. We recorded it the week of the solar eclipse at Gnome Studio, which is a cozy spot in a factory. We started at 11 or 12 in the morning and stayed until midnight. All the instrumentation was live, and we would re-track the vocals. Recording is about the magic, and getting the live feel which is about the energy. You have to transfer live energy of a show into a recording by looking at each other and watching each other play [in a non-creepy way].
C: You get some things [when you record live] that you didn’t expect that just happen, like doing reverb and warming up licks, and that tracked into the album. Don Bates produced our last record.
D: I also work with Don for solo stuff. I’ll be going on a solo tour in the Fall.
A: If you could open for any band ever, or could play at any venue, who and/or where would it be?
D/C: It would be the coolest thing opening for Alabama Shakes, Gary Clark, JR., or Rival Sons
J: Muse
D: Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown. They played with AC/DC on their farewell tour. For venues, I would love to play at The Ryman, or at Red Rocks, CO.
J: We’re going to CO in early July to see Umphrey’s McGee. They have a 3-night gig at Red Rocks.
Coincidentally, Iron Vessel have a gig the day this article comes out! Go see them play at The High Watt on August 20th! (I’m not sure how long the link will last)
Also, buy Iron Vessel's newest album!
LINKS:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2o1wxqfQWBsb4HYxry5C5A?si=PbdOXuNgTQKuOqDuaOfR7Q
https://www.facebook.com/IronVessel/
https://ironvessel.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.reverbnation.com/ironvessel/songs
Written and interviewed by Andra Ingram
John Keathley
Multi-instrumentalist John Keathley taps, strums, kicks, and whistles his way through the town, and he means business.
Mover & Shaker Music Man
Multi-instrumentalist John Keathley taps, strums, kicks, and whistles his way through the town, and he means business.
Guitar, harmonica, a little bit of bass, piano, and drums are among some of the instruments that homie John Keathley primarily plays.
Basically, he plays a little bit of everything. Given his multi-talent, John formulated a one man band, sitting perched on a cajón, maybe a kick drum for his right foot, a jangling tambourine on his left foot, his trusty acoustic guitar in his hands, and an old school harmonica almost floating in front of his bearded face, secured around his neck by one of those cyborg-looking holder things. Think along the lines of Shaky Graves, not so much Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins; John sits down during his sets and never ties huge cymbals around his knees.
His solo super act sort of started out of necessity;
John would play live acoustic sets with his guitar, but his true musical genius lies behind a drum kit. One day while working at Guitar Center, boredom crept into John’s head. To fight the bore monster, he began to experiment in the percussion section at Guitar Center, sitting with a kit and aimlessly plucking at some guitar’s strings; and voila, a one-man band was born. John’s preference, though, is to play and perform with other guitarists and the whole band shebang. While he has fun playing all sorts of instruments at once,
John admits that it is difficult to fully concentrate, since he’s constantly multitasking.
To write out John’s “performed in” city résumé for his recent music career, John has rocked in Little Rock, jammed in Memphis, and fiddled throughout Florida. According to him, the crowds differ from spot to spot. Memphis has a heavy rock tourist scene that is light on local rock acts. Florida has plentiful local dives with lots of talented, artsy, and creative kids, but John perceived as though he was on a different page than the Floridians. With one band in Florida John took part in, he felt ahead mentally and tactically in business, strongly seeking to take his act to a professional level.
Before arriving in Nashville, John debated between moving either here or Austin, two cities thoroughly saturated in music and music culture.
However, John had no connections in Austin, whereas he already knew a few fellow folk here. Additionally, Logan hooked him up with a job, so John even had a steady support start already in place, which we all know is vital.
John had met Logan back in their home state of Arkansas playing gigs around town. Consequently, John was one of the first official members of HOME. He enlisted as a member for networking purposes. Having now been in Nashville for about two years, after a while John grew tired of going out to bars and spending money trying to randomly meet industry people. Also, the utilities and recording spaces at HOME attract him, since he needs them to further his music career.
During his adolescence, John started playing the drums on account of his cousin, who played in a band in High School. His cousin owned a drum kit in a shed and John would go over there after “finishing” his dinner to bang on it. Oddly enough, John’s cousin primarily played sax, so John eventually bought the kit from his cousin around age 14 or 15.
The guitar came in the picture near college graduation, when he realized he had not performed with a band in over a year. In that moment, John decided that he wanted to learn guitar, so with the aid of website tutorials, he taught himself. Today, John appreciates his decision to learn guitar. He finds it useful for writing songs, plus it adds variety when he craves a change from banging on drums sans accompaniment.
Now, John seeks to expand his repertoire to include the dobro, slide guitar, or steel guitar, to get that sweet, swampy sound.
His childhood influences include classic rock from his dad such as the notorious “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction),” Peter Frampton, and Led Zeppelin; whereas his mom dug more pop music like Elton John and Whitney Houston.
John vividly remembers riding in his mom’s van during the summer driving to the pool and listening to her pop hits.
His first big concert he attended, when he was 12 or 13, resulted from his friend’s mom having an extra ticket to see Shania Twain; ironically, John didn’t listen to country until he was older. His first rock concert, though, was seeing Aerosmith at The Pyramid in Memphis before they stopped using it as an event venue.
In regards to his current career, John is still trying to figure out exactly what his sound is. He loves all music and writes all genres of songs, but other people would agree that his music is Southern rock/blues-y/Americana-ish. He believes that, while America gave everyone jazz, that jazz music came from the blues, which is the true foundation of modern music. What a lot of people don’t realize is that a lot of iconic 60s/70s rock groups used old and underrated blues songs without accrediting the original blues artists. While learning more about the history of modern music, John realized today’s rock heroes weren’t exactly superhuman and did not recreate the music wheel.
Songwriters today also face the issue of not receiving credit for their work.
The reality is that what an artist listens to shapes the music they create; so, John spends time carefully researching how to navigate songwriting and song production in order to rightfully receive credit for his hard work. John is among many in the same boat, so those of you who can relate or possibly help out, reach out!
Also, John starts recording for his new music project this month!! The plan is to record and release one song each month for a full year. Stay tuned!
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/johnkeathleymusic/
(or search John Keathley Music across all social media platforms)
Written and interviewed by Andra Ingram
Patrick Nehoda
Patrick mixes early 90s grunge and Americana music to create his unique “grungicana” sound, picking up momentum in unlikely places
Ex-firefighter Spreading Like Wildfire
Patrick mixes early 90s grunge and Americana music to create his unique “grungicana” sound, picking up momentum in unlikely places
Radio tuned into local Lightning 100, driving down a brown tree-lined road in chilly yet still somehow humid Nashville November, an ad for HOME popped on, listing all the amenities we have to offer (including unlimited free coffee).
Patrick Nehoda, a 6’7 giant puppy, urgently pulled over to the side of the road to fill out an application to become a HOME member (I picture him driving a classic red pick-up, but I’m not sure what kind of car he drove). Lo and behold, a couple months later, Patrick is a fellow homie, hopping on board the awesome music community dream train.
Before coming down to Nashville about 2 years ago, Patrick lived in artsy, rainy Seattle for 3 years, and before that he lived in super Red Sacramento, CA. For those of you who have seen the movie Lady Bird, which takes place in Sacramento, the writer of the film, Greta Gerwig attended the all-girls sister school of Patrick's High School.
The first time Patrick visited Nashville was back in 2007/2008; he was instantly impressed and immediately sensed it was a great and affordable city. Ten years later, though the city is not as affordable, but it is still a terrific place! The siren song of the music scene coaxed Patrick into our town, but not the country music scene, specifically not country music. For him, it’s beneficial to not be part of the majority, so he came to join the rock side of the city, influenced by the local domicile of Jack White and Alabama Shakes.
Patrick’s tendency to swim upstream began as an adolescent. About age 10, Patrick experienced a monumental musical epiphany.
Nirvana’s Nevermind album had released mid-September, including their hit single “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” One particular weekend night, young Patrick had stayed up way late watching Alt Nation on MTV; sitting there in front of the screen, he witnessed the first airing of the hit single’s legendary music video. That game-changing video hit a chord in Patrick’s music heart. Having listened heavily to smooth 50s and 60s pop on account of his parents’ tunes of choice, the sweet buzzing whine of the grungy electric guitar was a sound he had never experienced before, and now he could never get enough of it. From that moment on, his ears sought the music of Smashing Pumpkins, Eric Clapton, Lenny Kravitz, Cream, and of course Nirvana. The specific rock music he listened to was almost feminist, especially when compared to the objectifying and misogynistic songs of hair metal. Respecting women in lyrics was logical to Patrick, thanks to strong influential women raising him, such as his mom and grandmother.
More fun facts about Patrick, he was a firefighter in Northern California for several seasons.
He became a firefighter when a band he was in during his early 20s started falling apart. His mates were getting married, having kids, and pursuing other careers, so he decided to choose a different path as well. He attended and graduated from a firefighting academy and paramedic school to become a trained and certified firefighter. On good days, the gig was like being paid to go camping with friends, but on bad days it was like facing the Grim Reaper. After risking his life fighting a natural forest fire nowhere near any residential neighborhoods, Patrick took a step back to evaluate where he was going in life; he decided fighting non-civilian life threatening fires was not worth the risk. Also, the difficult and backbreaking work was something he couldn’t picture himself continuing into his mid-50s.
Patrick felt replenished with life when creating art, but he chose to be a firefighter instead to make his dad proud.
Caring only about what made Patrick happy, his family encouraged him to pursue his music again, so he flipped a coin to determine the fate of his fresh start: tails to visit New Orleans or heads to visit Seattle. The coin landed on heads, so he packed his bags to go up travel northward to the tippy top of the West Coast, where he instantly fell in love with the city and was undeniably certain he wanted to live there after only a week and a half. And of course three years and one album later, he moved to Nashville to continue his music career!
In his music, Patrick experiments with combining sounds that people don’t often hear together, such as old school western mixed with 90s grunge.
Some call it “grungicana.” Interestingly enough, his American-rooted music has a large following in Europe, though that didn’t happen by accident. The story begins when Patrick met Elles Bailey, a contemporary blues/rock artist from England, and Elles insisted he share his newly recorded music with the masses. So by her request, he sent to her an email containing a short bio and all the music he had, to later find out she submitted everything to hundreds of rock & roll/blues stations across the entire European continent. One particular FM station in the West England city of Gloucester, the host town of the Rhythm & Blues Festival, played his over-7-minutes-long song “Devil’s Bitch.”
Towards the end of 2016, the radio station hosted a contest to determine from a list of frequently played songs, which included some Stones stuff, their “Best Track of 2016,” using call-ins and emails from listeners to vote for the most popular radio tune. In early 2017, his radio dialed to their frequency, Patrick’s surprised ears heard each individual word as the station announced his song had won the contest! The international radio victory led to an open invite to play at the Gloucester Rhythm & Blues fest in July, so Patrick along with his music partner in crime/guitarist arranged a July 2018 European tour. Though he had never been to Europe before, he knew from experience and word of mouth that folks across the pond had a certain appreciation for blues and Americana music that we Americans don’t seem have as much of here.
Fast-forward, Patrick is scheduled to play Sunday evening July 22nd at the Fountain Inn for the festival!
If you happen to be there at the particular time, I strongly suggest you show Patrick some love!
Meanwhile at HOME,
Patrick was the first homie chosen to participate in a Homie Makeover, where one of our producers chooses one of our artist’s songs and re-records and re-produces it according to his vision. So our dear Matt picked “Anymore,” a song previously recorded in Seattle with a raw and retro sound, moved and shifted things around and Nashvillicized it by recording it nice and crisp and clean and ready to be all done up in the studio to make it shiny and perfect sounding.
Check out the makeover results when they come in, and let us know what you think!
Also, Patrick just released his album, Don't Forget The Hat, on Spotify, so be sure to give it a good listen!!
Links:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7eYFQSupLc2Nos4g7wH2fA?si=xSmyk1YyRmG3d3uO92y84A
https://soundcloud.com/patricknehoda
https://www.instagram.com/skyscrape81/
Interviewed and written by Andra Ingram