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SXSW review: Ten Out of Tenn at Maggie Mae’s Gibson Room
9 p.m. Wednesday: Nashville sometimes gets a bad rap, especially in Austin, where some folks like to gaze condescendingly down on Music City from considerable aesthetic heights. And if you think all there is to the Athens of the South is Taylor Swift or Kenny Chesney, then you can understand why.
But Nashville attracts songwriters like blue serge picks up lint and there is a creative community bubbling under the commercial surface that is as robust as any in the country.
A case in point being Ten Out of Tenn, a sort of rolling caravan of songwriters and performers who have traded songs onstage for some five years and three or four albums. Due to the brevity of the SXSW showcase time frame, listeners at Maggie Mae’s Gibson Room didn’t get the full-on TooT experience (Seven Out of Tenn, anyone?), but the group’s multifaceted performance was diverse and engaging enough to make you sign on for the full treatment.
Though the narrative traditions of country music are evident enough in the group’s songs, there wasn’t a cheatin’ heart or a tear in the beer to be found. If these guys have any allegiance to country music, it’s more the Neil Young than the Little Jimmy Dickens variety.
Rather, songs like the hook-filled “Rain Or Shine,” “Inside These Lines” and the ebullient “Something To Talk About” boasted a Southern indie vibe that was not in the least in conflict with the polished songcraft that lent a solid spine to each number. Even K.D. Rhoads’ largely improvised “Invincible Fortress,” which utilized electronic vocal and keyboard hooks and a snatch of lyrics, had a distinct interior logic to it.
Despite the diversity of material, none of TooT’s songs evidenced any arty self-indulgence, quite a feat for any six-pack-plus-one of songwriters. But the commercial and the artistic have always run in tandem in Nashville and the songwriter’s art is held in esteem. Ten Out of Tenn are heirs to an honorable tradition.
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