You have to go back to BR549’s debut in the mid-90s to find a modern band that has committed so strongly to classic mid-century country music, blending the buttoned-up stylized Music Row of the 1950s with the Outlaw/hippie movement of Willie and Waylon in the 1970s; and there lies the sweet spot for Athens, GA-based The Howdies.
Their debut, Howdies All Around, co-produced by T. Hardy Morris and David Barbe, is a time capsule of brilliant influences, yet still manages to put enough of a modern spin on the music to avoid coming off like just another playlist of classic country. “I think we contrast each other nicely,” says Austin Darnell, one of the band’s two frontmen. “Shoni (Rancher, the other vocalist) has such a unique voice, and we’re coming from these two different periods in country music. Between us, we get this weird thing that’s neither this nor that. It’s old, but it’s new. It’s Athens, so it has a little bit of weirdness to it. It gives us more versatility.”
You can hear the contrast in the vocals on songs like “Buddies” and “Biscuits and Gravy,” which sound like the ghost of Waylon Jennings leaning into the mic, with its deep baritone and “Dreaming About Water,” a completely different register. In terms of song themes, there is nothing particularly complex about the tracks here; no life-or-death themes of extremes, but simple relatable singalongs like tunes about drinking (“Hello Jukebox”) and quitting drinking (“Quitting Time”).
The contrast between Darnell, who’s been gigging in bands around Athens for the past two decades, and Rancher, who’s nearly 50 but had never played a live show before joining the band just a couple of years ago, is as compelling as it is stark. But judging from their debut, it’s one hell of a catchy formula. By the last song, “Twilight on the Plains,” a goofy, but endearing piano ballad, you want to immediately go back and start over again from the beginning.
