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| Darnell Boys at the Green Room -- October 18th w/ Tia Madre and the Welfare Liners |
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Darnell Boys music bio for North Georgia Folk Festival
Darnell Boys
Athens, GA
Contact:
Austin Darnell <
chubbs4@gmail.com
>
Website:
http://darnellboys.com
Facebook:
Although it
may seem that today’s worlds of hip-hop and country exist on
opposite
ends of the universe. Actually, like almost all popular American music, it
came from
the same style: the blues . You don’t have to tell that to The Darnell Boys.
Of the three
Darnell brothers -- Caleb, Austin and Gus —the latter two made names
for
themselves in town as rappers. Austin made his name in the highly regarded
Deaf Judges
and Gus performing as Gus D. at house parties and clubs since he was in
high school.
Then, about six months ago, they took the obvious next step — form a
band that
meanders back and forth from multi-part harmonies in the 1950s country
-tradition
to gut -busting blues about evil women and whiskey.
The
Darnell’s, all Athens locals, were raised on country and blues, Gus explains,
including the Allman Brothers Band and Hank Williams Sr. “We’ve grown up with
it because all my uncles and my father, they all play music, and they all play country
and blues music,” said Gus. “So we grew up with my dad listening to a lot of country
and blues and blues-rock kind of stuff.”
The Darnell
Boys consist of the three Darnell brothers along with bassist Elijah Nessmith
and “junkyard percussionist” Patrick Weiss, who plays washboards and saw. Onstage
the Darnells are constantly rotating, each taking his turn on different
instruments and in different roles. Aesthetically, the jump for Gus and Austin
from hip
-hop to
country/blues—especially in this old-time, family style — seems radical. But
Gus explains it’s all actually linked together.
“Hip-hop was
born from the blues and being in a shitty environment and having to get through
it, and the way to get through it is just doing music. Both are kind of a healing
process, trying to just figure out what’s going on in your life and make it
through,” Gus said. “It’s nice to have the brothers there to back you up on
it.”
Members:
Austin
Darnell on vocals, harmonica, and rhythm guitar; Caleb Darnell on
vocals and lead
guitar; Gus Darnell on vocals, rhythm guitar, and harmonica sometimes; Elijah
Nesmith on bass; Patrick Weise on misc. percussion and singing
saw.
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