The boys of Blank Range have been mainstays of the local rock scene since forming in Nashville in 2013. Two summers ago, they released their long-awaited first full-length, Marooned With the Treasure. The most talked-about song on the album, which earned Best Rock Record honors in the Scene’s 2017 Best of Nashville issue, was a catchy, clever number sure to ring true to any struggling musician: “Opening Band.”
On Friday, the foursome returns with In Unison, a second set of similarly relatable, retro-leaning tunes, and a release show will follow on Feb. 15 at The Basement. Much of this material was broken in on the road, where Blank Range spent most of 2018 as direct support for rising country stars Margo Price and Tyler Childers, watching in real time as the shows’ headliners achieved household-name status (at least in households whose residents are tuned-in to top-shelf country-leaning music).
You might wonder whether “Opening Band” has become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy for the group. Singer-guitarist Jonathon Childers (no relation to Tyler), who wrote the song, puts it plainly, speaking with the Scene over coffee one night just before Christmas. We were joined by baritone guitarist and co-frontman Grant Gustafson.
“There was no prophecy,” says Childers. “ ‘Opening Band’ was written because it’s our reality.”
“Dress for the job you already have,” Gustafson deadpans, “but dress well, so you can keep that job.”
The members of Blank Range are a laid-back (and indeed, well-dressed) bunch whose performances have a way of feeling like living-room hangs no matter the venue. Childers, Gustafson and bassist Taylor Zachry all contribute songs, and along with drummer Matt Novotny, they split writing credits four ways. Their multi-voiced, appealingly unrefined sound touches on rootsy country, Southern rock, psych rock, and even Byrds-ian power pop and Dylanesque folk, making them a natural fit on just about any bill. On a break between tours in September, they opened the second of hesher heroes Diarrhea Planet’s three sold-out sendoffs at Exit/In.
“We came up with [Diarrhea Planet] in the early-2010s garage scene in town here,” says Childers. “Playing that last show with them got me thinking about all the bands we were playing with back then and who’s left. A lot of bands have fallen out. Finding that stability is a hard thing to achieve.”
Blank Range found a local champion early on in Grimey’s, Basement and Basement East co-founder Mike “Grimey” Grimes. When The Tennessean asked him in 2016 who he’d like to see become “Nashville’s next big thing,” Grimes said he was rooting for the band. They wrapped and released Marooned after two EPs and a 7-inch. Childers describes that process as “a giant exhale for us.”
“We toured so long with just a cassette out,” he says. “Taking so long to get that first record done, we got to figure out what our sound was.”
Turning around the follow-up came easier. Marooned was bashed out punk-rock style over four days in Durham, N.C., but the group stayed nearer to home and gave themselves a full week for In Unison. They hunkered down in the winter of 2017 to track at a farmhouse where Novotny was staying in Greenbrier, just north of Nashville.
The result is 10 tightly crafted, loosely played songs that get in your head after a few listens. After a few more, they feel like they’ve been around your whole life. Like their classic-rock forebears The Band and Fleetwood Mac, each of Blank Range’s songwriters brings something different to the table. The gravelly voiced Childers, whose offerings include “Radio” and “Career” — the latter of which is a spiritual sequel to “Opening Band” — has a flair for the anthemic. Gustafson’s jangly “Proximity” and “Gutters” take a more cerebral, philosophical approach. And Zachry, a later addition to the band who joined in 2015, serves up solemn introspection (“Haunt You”) and winsome power pop (“Change Your Look”) in equal measure. Vibrant, casually masterful guitar work (if you ask us, Gustafson’s one of the finest players in town) and a crackling drum mix help it all hang together. The album’s title is both apt and hard-earned.
Reflecting on the state of the band as it heads into the promotional and touring cycle for In Unison, Childers hopes this is the year Blank Range finally sheds its perennial opening-band status.
“I think that we accomplish a lot with the extremely limited time we have together, especially as of late,” he says. “And I’d be really intrigued to see what we could accomplish if we had a few more days a week, if we didn’t have to work as much. That’s a goal for me. I’m not trying to buy a Maserati or anything. Just to have it pay some of the rent would be cool.”
