Teddy and the Rough Riders at The 5 Spot for AmericanaFest, 9/20/2024
Every year when announcements start coming about musicians slated to play AmericanaFest or nominated for the Honors & Awards, questions arise about what “Americana” is. If the term is an umbrella for new expressions and combinations of old traditions, it’s one of those enormous golf umbrellas; often as not, any two acts playing one venue during the festival will have as many differences as they do things in common. Friday’s showcase at The 5 Spot offered a pretty good cross-section of what makes up Americana today.
Up first at 7 p.m. were Teddy and the Rough Riders. They’re just a few weeks out from the Oct. 11 release of their second LP Down Home and they were in prime form from a month of touring the U.K. with fellow Nashvillian Emily Nenni. The band is made up of dudes who have been kicking around Nashville for years in groups like ’60s-psych unit The Paperhead and avant-punk ensemble Gnarwhal.
But Teddy’s music is full-bore country-rock recalling some of the era’s greasier albums like CCR’s Bayou Country andJim Ford’s Harlan County; you can practically hear it blasting from The Bandit’s Trans Am. The combination of tight, deep grooves and musicians who trust each other enough to play around and express themselves onstage was reminiscent of what jazz legend Herbie Hancock’s band did at the Schermerhorn earlier in the week — despite the differences in the sound.
Margo Cilker at The 5 Spot for AmericanaFest, 9/20/2024
After a charming and stylish 45-minute set from Australian duo The Pleasures, Margo Cilker and her band settled in. Born in California and now residing in Washington’s wine country, Cilker writes songs that often have a good bit of country in them, though she shows how thin the line has always been between country and R&B on her 2023 album Valley of Heart’s Delight. Her songs tend toward slices of life packed with playful one-liners and wistful turns of phrase; one prime example is “Keep It on a Burner,” which catalogs both blessings and things she’ll keep struggling with. Cilker’s pure, sweet voice echoes with joys and sorrows and longings that come from being a person with a big heart that they want to share with us.
Jess Nolan at The 5 Spot for AmericanaFest, 9/20/2024
Relative Nashville newcomer Max McNown took over next, setting the stage for longtime local Jess Nolan, who works on her own music when she’s not on the road with the likes of Jenny Lewis. Nolan began her set on keys, switched to guitar and eventually moved to just singing in front of her incredibly tight band. Her music is not in the same lane as the more country-tinged material that other artists brought on Friday, but it feels like she’s traveling the same lonesome highway. Sonically, her songs share as much with Peter Gabriel or Lindsey Buckingham as they do anything from the American South.
She built her set around songs from ’93, her 2023 album on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe label, peppered with new, as-yet-unreleased tunes recorded in her living room and stories about challenging times she’s had in the past year. Nolan regularly plays her songs in small rooms like The 5 Spot and The Basement when she’s in town, but the power of her presence and her easy command of the audience’s rapt attention suggests it won’t be long before she’s selling out much bigger venues.
