East Nash Grass: Bluegrass Delinquents
Nashville’s white-hot, bluegrass supergroup keeps it hot with a new album and tour.
Photos: Scott Simontacchi, Courtesy of East Nash Grass
East Nash Grass walks the line between bluegrass reverence to keep the music honest and a general irreverence to keep their live shows spicy, fun, and engaging.
The band’s bona fides makes plain its bluegrass pedigree. East Nash Grass members have played with icons like Rhonda Vincent, Tim O’Brien, and Dan Tyminski. The band itself won the Best New Artist award from the Nashville-based International Bluegrass Music Association last year.
“People listen to music different ways and may take it more serious than others,” East Nash Grass guitarist James Kee said. “We just kind of started joking around at that [in our live shows] some over the years. It kind of became this persona of ours for having some things that are maybe a little bit bizarro, you know?”
In our recent conversation for the State & Beale podcast, Kee never elaborated on “bizarro” or gave examples of these jokes in their live shows, breaking only once to admit there is a “grass element” in the show. (Can’t wait to find out what that is.)
But crowds across the country are about to find out. The band hit the road earlier this summer for a nationwide tour to support its new album, “All God’s Children,” due out on August 22.
State & Beale: If someone has never heard the band before, could you describe your sound?
James Kee: We're definitely traditional bluegrass. But I think we have maybe a newer edge to what we do. Still, we're within the confines of whatever you would call bluegrass. But we're all lifelong bluegrassers trying to pay homage to the old stuff and, then, also create something new. It's a little different.
SB: I saw on your website that “The Bluegrass Situation” called y'all ”bluegrass delinquents.” Does that sound about right?
JK: Sure. I love that. We have a little bit of irreverence sometimes mixed in with the respect for the music.
SB: I've been listening to “Gamblers and Railroaders,” is that the name of the song?
JK: “Railroading and Gambling.”
SB: Yeah, that's a barn burner, man.
JK: That's classic Tennessee native Uncle Dave Macon.
SB: The old Dixie Dewdrop. I went to [Middle Tennessee State University] and Uncle Dave's from down there. So, when I was there, we’d go to Uncle Dave Macon Days. I saw Old Crow Medicine Show play in the parking lot of Uncle Dave days one time, to tell you how long ago I was at MTSU. [Laughs.]
JK: I might've been there because I saw them as well down there. I went to that when I was kid. I'm from Chattanooga. So, kind of close.
SB: Y’all won the [Nashville-based International Bluegrass Music Association — IBMA] award for New Artist of the Year last year. What was that like?
JK: You know, I've never put a whole lot of stock in awards. But that being said, it was quite an honor to get it. I had never been eligible for that myself. Some of my other band members are highly awarded and have been for quite some time. I think to have respect of your peers is certainly really wonderful and that's what that one feels like to us.
SB: East Nash Grass won new group but your members have been around forever playing with bluegrass icons like Rhonda Vincent, Tim O’Brien, and Dan Tyminski. It's kind of a super group.
JK: Everybody's got a lot of experience in it. We've been at it our whole lives. It has sort of given us proving grounds that we’ve been lifelong bluegrassers. It's a lot of fun.
One of the things that's really, that's really entertaining in this band is that everybody gets to make their own music. Whereas we've all been part of a lot of different groups as maybe a side man — and there's nothing wrong with that, of course. But there's something special about being able to make your own music and say whatever you want to musically or, in our case, even on stage, to be able to say whatever comes to mind.
SB: How did the group come together?
JK: We started playing at a little bar here in Nashville called [Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge] on Monday nights. Dee’s turned into a little, unlikely hotspot for music. It's really just a triple-wide trailer over in Madison, which is kind of East Nashville.
“Dee’s turned into a little, unlikely hotspot for music. It’s really just a triple-wide trailer over in Madison, which is kind of East Nashville. ”
Dee’s kind of became a home for a lot of different folks like us and we started playing there every Monday from 6 p.m.-8p.m. We realized that was a really great musicians’ hang. Musicians are off on Mondays. A lot of times because the majority of us are working the weekends. So, it was was great to be able to have this little community gathering that it really turned into something.
I didn't forecast that initially when we started playing there in 2017. But that's kind of what it turned into and we recognized that pretty quick. We realized within a few months of doing it. We were getting to meet some folks that we really wouldn't get to meet. We were just very consistently there every Monday for almost seven years, there still doing bluegrass each and every Monday.
SB: You have a new album coming out in August. Tell me about it.
JK: The album was recorded last year. It's our first new music out in two years.
There's a lot of new music on (the new record). Some stuff that we've written. Some other stuff that's written friends of ours. Then, there's of course a couple of bluegrass classics and some traditional music classics in there that, maybe, not a whole lot of folks have heard.
