PCL PRESENTS
The Vandoliers
+ Support
Wednesday 8th July 2020
Broadcast, Glasgow
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AGE 18+
DOORS 7PM
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Tickets available via SEE and Tickets Scotland:
https://www.seetickets.com/event/the-vandoliers/broadcast/1484268
Vandoliers are the next wave of Texas music. The six-piece Dallas-Fort Worth group channels all that makes
this vast state unique: tradition, modernity, audacity,
grit, and—of course—size. Forever puts it all together
for an enthralling ride down a fresh Lone Star highway.
Produced and recorded by Adam Hill (Low Cut Connie, The
Bo-Keys, Deer Tick, Don Bryant, Zeshan B) at American
Recording Studios in Memphis, TN, the band’s third album
(and first with Bloodshot) Forever is a mix of youthful and
defiant punk, rugged Red Dirt country, and vibrant Tejano.
The full-length’s 10 songs blend emblematic rock ‘n’ roll with
bold horns, violin, and a slather of twang reflecting where
the band is from, where they’ve been and, eventually, where
they’ll be headed. It’s regional and universal all the same.
“I wrote a series of songs about my life and gave it to the best
musicians I know to flesh out,” says lead singer and guitarist
Joshua Fleming. “I spent over a year writing by myself, with friends and mentors, and we spent just as long filling out arrangements and writing scores. We wrote horn and fiddle parts on a trio tour through the mountains of New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana.”
One of those mentors is fellow Dallas-Fort Worth
musician Rhett Miller of Old 97’s. The influence and
tutelage of Miller and his bandmates helped sharpen
Vandoliers’ Texas-bred, roots-based punk rock.
“Before the band started diving into the new material, I sent
Rhett a bunch of acoustic phone demos,” says Fleming.
“Being the amazing person he is, he sent me back a 3,000-
word email of advice that read like a master class in the art
of songwriting.
Beyond their influence musically, they’ve
really taken us under their wing, letting us play shows
with them and giving us all kinds of advice along the way.”
While tracking alongside the muddy path that country-punk
bands like Old 97’s, Jason and the Scorchers, and the True
Believers blazed in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Vandoliers define their
own style; no one else is upending the genre quite like them.
There are familiar ingredients—Fleming’s raspy vocals,
rousing sing-along choruses, and an infectious energy (like
on the rippin’ “Sixteen Years”)—that lay down the foundation
on Forever. But it’s the ancillary instrumentation that separates
them from others. When they seamlessly inject punk rock with
‘60 and ‘70s country grime (“Tumbleweed”), old-timey fiddlin’
(“Miles and Miles”), Tex-Mex horn and violin (“Fallen Again”),
and heartfelt balladry (“Cigarettes in the Rain”), a rich new
sound emerges. References to the Texas Tornados, Social
Distortion, Deer Tick, and Calexico can be made, but none fully
capture the soul of the self-proclaimed “Converse cowboys.”
For a band that spends more than half the year on the road,
“forever” is their credo of hope and determination—
“VFFV” (Vandoliers Forever, Forever Vandoliers) is tattooed
on the six members’ arms as an emblem of their solidarity
and commitment to the collective, through good times and,
more significantly, the tough ones. The album’s lyrics center
on themes of dedication (“Sixteen Years”), being known as
middle finger-throwing rabble-rousers (“Troublemaker”),
seizing adventure while traveling (“Nowhere Fast”), and
addressing anxiety and depression (“Fallen Again”). When
they return home from tour, broke and empty, they humbly
look to their families for support (“Bottom Dollar Boy”) and
unconditional love—despite their unconventional career
paths—(“Tumbleweed”). Thus recharged, they can hit the road
again, to spread the Vandoliers’ message with renewed fervor.
Formed in 2015, Vandoliers are Fleming, bassist Mark
Moncrieff, drummer Guyton Sanders, fiddler Travis Curry,
electric guitarist Dustin Fleming, and multi-instrumentalist
Cory Graves. Their first two albums Ameri-Kinda (2016)
and The Native (2017) were released on State Fair Records.
