Wagons from Oz set to roll across U.S. following release of U.S. debut ‘Rumble, Shake & Tumble’
Frontman Henry Wagons described by Justin Townes Earl as “Dr. Seuss meets Conway Twitty, a great performer, a good man (strutting) like a Tennessee Walking Horse on PCP.”
MELBOURNE, Australia — While the title Rumble, Shake & Tumble aptly describes Wagons’ unruly yet easy-to-like roots-rock sound, all you really have to do is listen to the disc’s opening lines. The leadoff track “Downlow,” a Tom Petty/Traveling Wilburys-ish jangly rocker, begins with a man proclaiming that his girl’s mama “doesn’t like me none/she’s got every reason under the sun/Your daddy think I’m okay/But not for his little Pamela May.” These words nicely encapsulate frontman Henry Wagons’ charming but slightly dangerous way with music.
A popular act in their native Australia, Wagons (which also includes drummers/bassists Mark Dawson and Si Francis, guitarists Chad Mason and Richard Blaze, and keyboardist Matthew Hassett) draw upon rock ’n’ roll, country, cabaret, psychedelia and soul, all tied together by Henry Wagons’ delightfully twisted vision. Listen to Rumble, Shake & Tumble, out August 16, 2011 on Thirty Tigers, and it’s easy to fall under the band’s sway.
Mere weeks later, Wagons will appear in the States to close the deal. Beginning with Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival, they then head up through Canada and back down via New York and the Eastern seaboard, through Atlanta into musical civilization cradles Nashville and Memphis, and eventually over to Los Angeles, where they’ll raise the hackles of singer-songwriter fans who frequent Hotel Café.:
Henry Wagons is eager to come to the land that so inspired his music. “I’m chomping at the bit in anticipation, looking forward to getting my guitar-hands dirty on American soil. The opportunity to play music in and around the source of so much inspiration has me foaming at the mouth.”
Rumble, Shake & Tumble is a lively musical adventure that is by turns rocking andtwangy, tough and tender, but always engaging and exciting. Henry Wagons says he “wanted the album to reflect the washing machine turbine we have been put through. This musician’s spin cycle has been an amazing and dizzy time. I wanted to capture it on record, complete with its highs and lows and touching on each extremity we have only hinted at on previous records.”
As vibrant as Wagons’ recorded work is, it’s their dynamic, unpredictable live shows that solidified their reputation as a band to remember. At a Wagons show, Henry states, “You’ll find a lot of energy, a lot of interaction and talk. We never leave anything behind. Small or large stage, we play like every show is the headlining slot at Woodstock.”
Formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2000, the band looked to America for much of its inspirations — from iconic figures like Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Hank Williams to contemporary cult artists such as Will Oldham, Bill Callahan and Adam Green as well as a dose of author Cormac McCarthey’s trippy Western novels. The literary influences aren’t accidental: Henry Wagons once was an English teacher. In fact, the same week he was supposed to start his Ph.D., the band got a record deal. Needless to say, he chose rock ’n’ roll.
After a triumphant 2011 SXSW appearance consisting of more than ten showcases and parties, Henry Wagons embarked on a tour across America that opened up the eyes of unsuspecting U.S. audiences. American Songwriter stated if “the theoretical love child of the Doors and ZZ Top had inappropriate relations with the theoretical love child of Johnny Cash and The Bad Seeds,” the result would be Henry Wagons. The acclaimed young singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, who toured with Henry Wagons, described him as “like Dr. Seuss meets Conway Twitty, a great performer, a good man . . . (he) struts like a Tennessee Walking Horse on PCP.”
And in the band’s first American album review, the Iowa City Press-Citizen declared,
“. . . this otherworldly combo doesn’t so much play country/rock music as stalk, surround, lunge and stab at it, much in the manner of spear-bearing cavemen fueled by hunger, blood-lust and organic hallucinogens tackling a woolly mammoth . . . Like Cave’s Bad Seeds, Wagons embrace the willfully oblique, boldly chasing white-hot chops down the rabbit hole to achieve a challenging, bracing and ultimately satisfying reinvention of the country music ethos.”
THE U.S. TOUR:
Sat., Sept. 3 SEATTLE, WA at Bumbershoot
Sun., Sept. 4 VANCOUVER, BC Railway Club
Tues., Sept. 6 TORONTO, ON Horseshoe Tavern
Wed., Sept. 7 OTTAWA, ON Zaphod Beeblebrox
Thurs., Sept. 8 NEW YORK, NY at Rockwood Music Hall
Fri., Sept. 9 BROOKLYN, NY Union Hall (with the Dirt Daubers)
Sat., Sept. 10 PHILADELPHIA, PA World Café Live (with the Dirt Daubers)
Sun., Sept. 11 CLEVELAND, OH Beach Land Tavern (with the Dirt Daubers)
Tues., Sept. 13 CHICAGO, IL Hideout (with the Dirt Daubers)
Wed., Sept. 14 NASHVILLE, TN Basement
Thurs., Sept. 15 CARBONDALE, IL Hangar 9 (with Those Darlins & the Dirt Daubers)
Fri., Sept. 16 ST. LOUIS, MO Off Broadway (with Those Darlins)
Sat., Sept. 17 MEMPHIS, TN Hi-Tone (with Those Darlins)
Mon., Sept. 19 ATLANTA, GA Earl
Wed., Sept. 21 LOS ANGELES, CA Hotel Café
Fri. Oct. 15 NASHVILLE, TN Americana Music Festival & Conference
HEAR AND SEE WAGONS RIGHT NOW!
See the video for the single “I Blew It”:
<http://youtu.be/ilIlEi5hFrA>
And the brand new video “Willie Nelson”:
<http://youtu.be/aQN3-Ik7znM>