Andrew Combs

While the last of the great ‘70s Nashville and Texas songwriters are really but a fading memory, the fire and precision of their words and melodies have to resurrect themselves somewhere in our modern age.

For those that are out there looking, maybe those characters can now be found in the songs of Andrew Combs, rendered in the same stark and understated terms as those forefathers of the great tradition of Texas writing. On “Too Stoned To Cry,” a song inspired by Combs’ own existence and the hard living of two friends, off his 2010 EP, Tennessee Time, a character wants to move on from this world, but cannot, singing: “I keep trying but I’m too stoned to die.”

But while Tennessee Time showed us a torn and tattered Texan dressed up in a simple but stately Nashville sound, Combs also draws on contemporary folk, a turn made amid 2011’s solo tours through the Midwest and Southeast. Locking in with a studio band electrified by lead guitarist Jeremy Fetzer (Caitlin Rose, The Deep Vibration) and Nashville by-way-of London pedal steel player Spencer Cullum, Jr., (Caitlin Rose, The Deadstring Brothers) Combs is starting to reveal a ballsy folk-rock sound, galvanized by the reemergence of authentic American music coming from bands like L.A.’s Dawes. Combs’ forthcoming debut full-length will be equal parts rough-and-ready Chicago blues, Planet Waves-era Dylan, and vintage Nashville folk. The band’s live show has been described as Merle Haggard’s stripped-down country rock meets the tightly wound garage punk of Detroit’s The MC5. In short, they call it “country soul swag,” and you should too.

But Andrew Combs also fits into a larger piece of the puzzle. He’s part of a Nashville renaissance in folk music that stems from the slicked-up rural country gems of Justin Townes Earle and the close-knit indie folk-rock of Caitlin Rose. Searching through this puzzle you might also find an answer to why Jack White operates a ‘50s-inspired record shop and recording studio in Nashville and why the city has a buzzing punk scene. Maybe you’d even stumble on to Combs and his band getting uncharacteristically fuzzed-out and wild at a hipster house party. Or maybe you’ll see Combs solo—on stage and alone as all hell—singing songs that have prompted middle-aged women to ask him, “Are you gonna be alright?”

Well, the Texas lad is just fine, thank you, and we think you’ll agree when you hear more of the sounds that are coming out of this East Nashville hotbed of dusty country soul, done up right.

Genre: Country, Singer/Songwriter 

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