Boy Named Banjo

In the decade since their stripped-down 2012 debut, The Tanglewood Sessions, brought them to Bonnaroo, Boy Named Banjo have taken Nashville and beyond by storm with a series of critically acclaimed, genre-bending releases that have earned performances everywhere from the Ryman to the Grand Ole Opry alongside dates supporting the likes of Kip Moore, Hank Williams, Jr., Old Crow Medicine Show, and the Cadillac Three.

On their latest album, Dusk, Boy Named Banjo explored the full sonic and emotional spectrum of their rich, eclectic sound, from late-night, feel-good anthems to stripped-down, introspective meditations on loneliness, loss, and letting go. 

 

While the band explored genres and flexed their range on Dusk, they have been working on a new body of music that marks a full-circle return to their Americana and bluegrass roots. “In the ten-plus years we’ve been together, we’ve explored many different sounds,” says banjoist and vocalist Barton Davies, “but the one we keep coming back to is that folky, acoustic sound that inspired us to pick up our instruments in the first place.” The group’s new music is slated for release in 2024.

“If we didn’t start a band together, it would’ve been kind of a disgrace to the circumstance,” proclaims Brady Stablein, singer/songwriter/guitarist for Brother Elsey–the Nashville-based, Detroit-born group he formed with his older brother Jack Stablein (guitar/vocals) and twin brother Beau Stablein (bass/vocals). Big believers in listening to the universe when it’s pointing you in a certain direction, the Stablein brothers always knew they were meant to make music together. After meeting drummer Dalton Thomas on their first day at the Detroit Institute of Music Education and making him a permanent fixture in the group, they moved to Grand Rapids in 2018 to explore new territory physically, personally and sonically. There, they quickly became a fixture of the local scene, playing the biggest shows of their career up to that point and further developing their arena-ready roots rock sound that’s at once hard-wearing and enthrallingly vulnerable. Searching for a wider network of creatives and a larger pool of opportunities, the group decided to migrate South to Nashville in the final days of 2021, leaving behind a dedicated audience and a built-in safety net in Grand Rapids. Their heartland work ethic undoubtedly comes across in their music, equal parts unpretentious and emotionally astute. The primary lyricsist and lead singer Brady channels a mindset of honesty and sincerity into the band’s songs. He crafts imagery-heavy stories about the human experience that are grounded in a specific sense of time and place while somehow concurrently feeling timeless and the Brothers drive these stories home with soaring blood harmonies that hearken back to Crosby, Stills and Nash. Later this fall, Brother Elsey will make their film debut in Dandelion from IFC Films, directed by Nicole Riegel with music written by Bryce and Aaron Dessner. In the movie, they will play themselves opposite KiKi Layne and Thomas Doherty.