Nashville, Tennessee's
Wild Feathers prefer the term "American" over Americana when describing their sound, which falls somewhere between the earnest, neo-Southern rock of the
Black Crowes, the bluesy swagger of the
Black Keys, and the wide-open-road country-rock of the
Eagles. The group's eponymous debut drew largely from classic rock and country, while 2016's
Lonely Is a Lifetime bristled with modern touches and big production values, dialing back on the twang and incorporating elements of psych, pop, and anthemic alt-rock. The band continued to refine their Southern rock, Americana, blues, and folk-tinged sound on subsequent efforts
Greetings from the Neon Frontier (2018) and
Alvarado (2021).
Formed in 2010 around the talents of Ricky Young,
Joel King, and
Taylor Burns, all of whom had served as lead singers in their previous bands, the
Wild Feathers came together out of a shared love for all things
Tom Petty,
Led Zeppelin,
Neil Young,
the Band, and
the Allman Brothers. They eventually inked a deal with Warner Bros. and found themselves opening shows for
Bob Dylan and
Willie Nelson. The band's eponymous major-label debut hit the streets in the summer of 2013. The album peaked at number one on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, resulting in invites to appear on Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien, Seth Meyers, and ABC's Nashville, as well as critical acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and USA Today. Their stylistically versatile sophomore studio long-player,
Lonely Is a Lifetime, dropped in early 2016, as did the concert LP
Live at Ryman. 2018's harmony-laden
Greetings from the Neon Frontier saw the band deliver a warm and breezy collection of new material that evoked the timeless country-rock of 1960s and '70s. In 2020 the band issued Medium Rarities, which collected previously unreleased material from the past decade, and in 2021 they put out
Alvarado, their fourth studio LP and first outing for
New West Records. ~ James Christopher Monger