There is something intrinsically exciting about welcoming a new year. It’s a chance for resolutions, change, and renewed vitality. For conscientious indie music devotees, the perfect way to ring in 2013 is with the Tumbleweed Wanderers at Bottom of the Hill. They are teaming up with Big Tree and The She’s to do what they do best, which is — as Sam Cooke would put it — “bring it on home.”
In anticipation of their show on New Year’s Eve, I sat down with the Tumbleweed Wanderers at the Blue Bottle in Jack London Square one appropriately foggy morning to chat about their sound, their recent tour with Angus Stone and their favorite pastime. The band is Jeremy Lyon, Zak Mandel-Romann, Patrick Glynn, Daniel Blum, and Rob Fidel. These guys sold out the Great American Music Hall for their CD release last summer, and the only thing they have more of than modesty and talent is hair. Don’t worry; they are by no means a hair band. In fact they are quite the opposite. Their personal style references a hipper version of Bluegrass legends Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs.
We talked about the retro sound that has been making its way through the music scene from bands like The Black Keys to The Strokes and The Avett Brothers. Guitarist and singer Jeremy Lyon said that while the “throw-back” band is gaining more and more traction in Americana Indie music, what the Tumbleweeds are trying to do is “focus on a history tied to the Bay without being ‘retro.'” He added, “Lately, a large portion of our influences come from American soul artists like Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Sly and the Family Stone.”
The Tumbleweed Wanderer’s sound is rich and full of soul. Its energy comes from a mixture of alt-rock and folk rooted in sounds like those mentioned above, but with a little less funk bass. Zak Mandel-Romann is the tallest Tumbleweed; he plays several instruments and sings, but most often can be found behind an upright bass adding a traditional blues element to the mix.
Daniel Blum plays drums, or a plastic trashcan turned bass drum (when the band is acoustic). He spoke about the Tumbleweeds’ live show, “We consider ourselves the ‘first listeners’ of the band and try to craft an experience in a song we would want to listen to over and over again.” It’s important to the Tumbleweeds that the audience is in on the sound and right there with them at a show.