Thrift Store Cowboys– Thrift Store Cowboys fourth studio album Light Fighter could be called their post-arson period, as the band wrote the record after a stranger torched a trailer filled with merchandise and parked next to lead singer Daniel Fluitt’s bedroom, nearly taking his life. Produced by Craig Schumacher (Calexico, Neko Case, Iron and Wine) Light-Fighter’s indie-rock shapeshifts through ambient and Gothic western music for songs that touch on death, loss, fear, redemption, the Spanish Civil War and West Texas ghost stories. All buoyed by soaring violin, draped against bottom-ended guitar and pedal steel sounds that the spaghetti western composed Ennio Morricone might envy.
The Lubbock based quintet, which recently relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee includes Fluitt, Colt Miller, Clint Miller, Kris Killingsworth, Cory Ames and Amanda Shires on fiddle and vocals, have been touring together for over a decade after meeting at the musical South Plains College. They are neither of the typical Texas-based types of bands – a country-rock melange or strictly indie rock. As Buddy Magazine points out, “Thrift Store Cowboys’ feel is more, for a lack of better description, gypsy desert music – the free sound of spacey, heat-induced delirium…a sure, confident sound backed by thoughtful vision.” Schumacher produced their 2006 release Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping, of which Austin Sound said, “the album is to country music what Jim Jarmusch’s film Deadman was to the western.”
Guy Marshall– East Tennessee customarily has been a hotbed for homegrown country and Americana music. Springing from this fertile ground has been Knoxville’s own Guy Marshall, a refreshing departure from the usual fare with their easy to sing along lyrics, infectious country meets alternative melodies and their eccentrically charming frontman, Adam McNulty.
The name Guy Marshall is an ode to Adam’s grandfather, Guy Marshall Shirley, a steadying and influential figure in his life and about whom several songs have been penned.
McNulty grew up the son of a mom who started him out on Alison Krauss and Union Station. His first concert was one by the Indigo Girls; when he started playing music as a teenager, he listened to bands like Radiohead as well as David Gray and Scottish rock band, Travis. . Later on, he immersed himself in Bob Dylan, Neil Young and finally outlaw country; which he suddenly took massive influence from when forming his own band in 2011.
Guy Marshall has an impressive resume including regional touring over the past couple of years prior to the pandemic and a number of festival appearances including the Foothills Fall Festival, Rhythm and Blooms, Whispering Beard, White Squirrel, Meadow Lark and Jammin’ at Hippie Jacks where their set was filmed for an appearance on PBS. Guy Marshall opened for Rufus Wainwright at the historic Bijou Theatre and their music was featured on an episode of Johnny Knoxville’s Sirius XM radio show. The Tennessee Theater featured them for a streamed concert in July 2020 as a part of their Gaslight Series.
As the citizens of these uncertain times go on with their daily lives, Guy Marshall forges ahead spreading the gospel of an Appalachian Cowboy throughout a weary world in need of a good story and some comforting sounds.