Rodeo Mouth try to tempt you with the endless hospitality of Fanny’s Farmhouse in their twangy and trippy new single — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
At first blush, the eccentric Nashville combo’s sophomore single seems like a redneck trucker’s helpful Yelp review set to music, with a ramshackle roots outfit — complete with banjo, fiddle, guitar and bass — picking and plucking a lazy, hazy 12-bar ode to a beloved roadside eatery. But as the hypnotic licks accumulate amid rippling waves of reverb, the angel-dusted seance vocals and intoxicatingly dreamy, vaguely disorienting delivery make it clear these guys aren’t talking about just any greasy spoon. If anything, Fanny’s Farmhouse is a Faustian franchise midway between a backwoods Hotel California, David Lynch’s Bang Bang Bar and The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe. And if you visit, you might be biting off more than you can chew:
“Well if you’re out drivin’ through the middle of the country
You feel a little weathered, and you feel a little weary
Stop on down to old Fanny’s Farmhouse
25 years at the same address
You’re family you’re a friend, you ain’t no strange guest…
Well pull into the gravel and put that thing in park
Don’t get worried buddy, they’re still servin’ after dark
Sausages, pancakes, coffee and tea
Man they’ll hook you up with whatever you need…
“Everything is served with love and a little extra salt
Plates shatter on the floor, it ain’t nobody’s fault
They show hospitality that ya just can’t teach
75 years at the same address…
85 years at the same address…
95 years at the same address.”
Fanny’s Farmhouse was recorded to tape with the help of multi-instrumentalist and producer Duncan Shea (Those Darlins, Becca Mancari) in Nashville, and mixed/mastered nearby at The Bomb Shelter (Alabama Shakes, Hurray For The Riff Raff). It follows the band’s debut single, Sunset Blues Revisited.
Rodeo Mouth are an eclectic roots band based out of Nashville, consisting of songwriter Paul Howard (vocals, rhythm guitar), Emmett Rozelle (lead guitar), Anthony Fili (bass) and Zach D’Amico (drums). Howard got the ball rolling by reclusively writing off-colour folk and alt-country songs — and playing them solo — before wrangling old friends from upstate New York (who had also relocated to Nashville) to join in the fun.
The band’s songs are refreshingly offbeat, with lyrics often filled with tongue-in-cheek charm, wit, and irreverent subject matter. Their style bounces between folk-rock, alt-country and Cosmic Americana, with songs chock full of playful, nostalgic, and satirical elements. Four longtime friends, Rodeo Mouth are simply having fun with each other both on stage and in studio, and that’s felt within their music.
The bandmembers have been steeped in various projects in the Nashville scene for nearly a decade. Rozelle has played and toured with Voodoo Fix, Mad Sugars, Squid Parade and his own band, Greasediver, along with playing drums at Mellow Mushroom every Friday night for extra cash and chops-polishing. Fili is an abstract portrait painter and graphic designer. D’Amico runs his own Common Man Studios. And Howard is a multi-tasking wordsmith who penned the nonfiction humour travel book Vagrants in Paradise and runs the Nashville blog Music Mecca.
Check out Fanny’s Farmhouse above and below, and sink your teeth into Rodeo Mouth on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
