AMERICANA

Country music as a foundation

By JONATHAN DONALDSON

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Aside from "Please Come to Boston" and that Gram Parsons went to Harvard, country music doesn't come to mind when one thinks of Cambridge, Mass. But sure as beards on weak-chinned college boys, boot-stomping bands have been sprouting up over the past few years and kicking quite a bit of ass. Three Day Threshold have been taking names for nigh on a decade—with their not-so-mild Turkish blend of straight country, psychobilly and the folk musics of drinking peoples. But the rise and success of bands like Girls, Guns and Glory, and Cassavettes, or songwriters like Todd Thibaud, make one take note of a burgeoning scene.

Kier Byrnes of Three Day Threshold is the de facto godfather of the scene. According to Glenn Yoder of Cassavettes: "I remember when we first came [to Boston], and made a close relationship with Kier, he told us that you couldn't get booked in Boston if you're a country band." Byrnes has nurtured the younger bands and has gradually converted booking agents to greater acceptance. He attributes some of the scene's boom to the economy's effect on touring: "It keeps the talent pool more local when it doesn't make sense for bands to tour," he says. "Take a band like Session Americana—they're great, and they play 90 percent of their shows within a 10-mile radius."

"We had no idea that people were doing country music around here," says Ward Hayden of Girls, Guns and Glory, who formed in 2005 around a memorial show to Greg Moynahan, Kier Byrnes' cousin. "Right now, we're touring regionally a bit. I don't know if you're a fan of NASCAR, but this past weekend, we played at the Charlotte 600." It is a testament to just how little pressure Girls, Guns and Glory feel to be just another Northern band, standing tentatively at the Mason-Dixon line. But Girls, Guns and Glory don't hesitate to say the "c" word, either. "People know pop country from what they hear on the radio, and that's not us. They know traditional country, and that's not us either."

"Country is a dangerous word," says Yoder. "If you're talking new-Nashville country, then that's a very singular sound. In the popular viewpoint, it's going to be misinterpreted. Then, if you throw in the alt-country tag, that's such a wide spectrum of music at this point that it could mean anything." Yoder and his bandmates in Cassavettes have a different story arc. "As this band progressed, we turned into this much more straight-ahead version of rock music. We love country and all that alt-country stuff, but it's not really us." Cassavettes have even been recording their latest record with David Minehan (The Neighborhoods, Paul Westerberg)—a good fit, considering the Minneapolitan energy of their live shows.

Ward Hayden puts it like this: "Cambridge has been really great to us. I feel the bands are growing ever-more supportive. Especially in these less popular genres that are blossoming." "Toad in particular is a place that is near and dear to my heart," says songwriter Todd Thibaud, who described the scene as "impressively dense." "You can walk into Toad any night of the week, have a couple beers and enjoy consistently great music with no cover charge," he says. "That's a special thing that doesn't happen everywhere."

"My partner, Charlie Christopher, and I started—and continue—with a love of, and commitment to, the local music scene," says Holly Hayden, co-owner of the Lizard Lounge and Toad. "The complexion has changed, but we're always excited about embracing what's brewing locally." The moral: Build it and they will come.

The Hub is about as far from Dixie as London is from Jamaica, but like punk was to reggae, Boston has roots that sprout from country.