Tishomingo is a Mississippi town featured in the movie “O Brother Where Art Thou?”. Tishamingo (with an “a” substituted in the middle) is a Georgia based rock band that has just released their second disc entitled “Wear N’ Tear” on Magnatude Records. In Tishomingo, four drifting musicians record a song that becomes a hit. If Tishamingo (the band with the “a”) continue making music like you’ll hear on “Wear N’ Tear”, there should will be plenty of hit songs in their future as well.
The band and the movie have other things in common. Tishamingo’s musical style is one of both deep rooted blues and soul combined with an energetic and refreshing southeast rock swagger. The songwriting is both clever and mature, and the playing is high caliber and diverse. Cameron Williams and Jess Franklin share guitar and vocal duties, giving Tishamingo’s music a bluesy and melodic character that has drawn comparisons to a number of legendary southern rock bands. Percussionist Richard Proctor and bassist Stephen Spivey are flawless in their delivery. Together, these four musicians, long-time friends who have been playing music together as a band for over four years now, interact musically to produce some of best sounds of the south since the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd ruled the roads.
Rather than shy away from those musical comparisons, Tishamingo welcomes the compliment. “Wear N’ Tear” brings a strong Southern Rock flavor combined with blues-based rock, extended jams, slide riffs, and soulful hooks. Formed in March 2001 and currently based in Athens, Georgia, Tishamingo has continued to crank out over 200 shows per year and develop a loyal fan base in each area they leave their musical mark. SOUND WAVES MAGAZINE caught up with Cameron Williams of Tishamingo upon the band’s return from a European tour that included stops in Switzerland, Italy, and Austria.
SOUND WAVES: How was your tour overseas?
CAMERON WILLIAMS: It was just amazing. The people over there really, really love music.
SW: It looks like you you’ll be making a run up here to Connecticut in August. We look forward to having you come up here.
CW: Yeah, it will be our first time out of the South this tour.
SW: I’ve been listening to the new disc and I think it’s terrific. Can you tell me a little about the recording of that album and how that went about?
CW: Sure. We recorded that last summer about this time. We got into the studio with a guy named David Barde. He’s a producer that’s working with the Drive-by Truckers, who have been doing real well, and has worked with just a whole bunch of other musicians. He has become a really noted figure here in the Athens area for producing and engineering. He’s got as great studio located right in Athens and he’s just a wonderful person to work with. Like he puts it, he coaches Little League Baseball and makes rock and roll records. He does a great job.
SW: Tell me something about yourself and the other guys in the band.
CW: Jess Franklin and I both play guitar and sing. Steven Spivey is our bass player, and Richard Proctor plays drums.
SW: How long have you four been together?
CW: We’ve been together almost exactly four years. We started in August 2001. We all started together and moved to a farmhouse in Athens just after August. It started from there; we just kind of took the plunge ands have been treading water ever since.
SW: How did you meet each other? Were you in different bands first?
CW: Richard and I were living in Atlanta at the time. We had been playing music together off and on since 6th grade. And then Jeff and Steven were in a band called “Jess Franklin and the Best Little Blues Band” in Tallahassee, Florida, and they’ve been playing together since about 9th grade. And then they were kind of at a crossroads, and Richard and I were kind of at a crossroads, and Jeff and I started playing acoustic shows together. From there, we just decided to stay a band. The four of us got together and started it up.
SW: The name “Tishamingo”…….how did that come about?
CW: We were living at the farmhouse and didn’t know anyone, so we’d watch a lot of movies. When we had to figure out a name for our band, we just started writing down everything from movies and books, like you do when you’re trying to find a name. We couldn’t decide, but we kept coming back to this name “Tishomingo” that we got from the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” It’s not necessarily like it was a real catchy name, but it was representative of us. It was the name of a Chickasaw Warrior Chief who was highly admired and fought for the Native Americans. It’s also the name of a place in Mississippi and in the movie, it’s the place where the four guys go to record and make their fame and fortune in music.
SW: The music industry often likes to label music in categories. If someone who has never heard your music before asks you what kind of music you play, how would you describe it?
CW: Well, we like to call it “County Rock”, but we don’t like to tell people that who are writing because it gets read as “Country Rock”. But we like that description. It gets labeled as “jam band” and it gets labeled as “bluesy rock” and it is all that with elements of all that in there, but we’re kinda making it from outside the city limits.
SW: Who are some of your musical influences and what do you listen to now?
CW: Right now I’m back on a big Meters kick. I love the Meters and a lot of those New Orleans cats. You know how you go through phases of listening……..you go through a phase of listening to the Allman Brothers, and the Grateful Dead. Maybe you go through a phase of jazz. But I’m back on the Meters kick right now for some reason. I’ve also got a bunch of bootlegs from this last Black Crowes Tour. I really like them a lot. I’ve found them to be a band that I respect and also admire and look at as an influence for our band. The music they make is right down our alley.
SW: What about “Poison Whiskey”, the Skynyrd cover. I like that song and I like your version. How did that track come about on the new record?
CW: We wanted to do one cover on this album. It wasn’t necessarily that we were searching for more songs, but we just thought it would be cool to do a cover. We didn’t do it on the first album, so we thought the second time “let’s put a cover on there”. We really had no ideas what we were going to put on the CD when we got into the studio. We just kind of started running through songs and letting Dave hear them. Then we did “Poison Whiskey”, and he said “I think that’s the one”.
SW: What I like about that choice is that it’s not a mainstream song. You know, if you did “Sweet Home Alabama” it would be a little different.
CW: Exactly. One of the songs we cover is “You Got That Right”. We were kinda like, “you know, that’s played on the radio a lot. Let’s do something a little more obscure.”
SW: What are some of your favorite venues to play?
CW: We love playing a lot of places down here. Twice a year we make a trip to Colorado, and we love playing out there for those folks. I’ll tell you, we’re just really looking forward to getting up there in the Northeast. We’ve got a lot of friends up there and have just been getting just a ton of e-mails asking us when were coming up to the Northeast. It just hasn’t been good timing yet. So were looking forward to it. It will be our first time getting up there.
SW: Were looking forward to having you up here. I think there are some good music audiences here.
CW: There’s a reason that the Allman Brothers do their run at the Beacon Theatre.
SW: What kind of music is big in Athens?
CW: Country is the king down here. But in Athens, there is a huge Indie rock influence, and I love that. It’s not the kind of music that I listen to necessarily, but I think it gives Athens a lot of heart.
SW: Where do you and the band want to be in 5-10 years? Do you look that far out?
CW: We try to look at the future and see what’s happening. I think the track we’re on right now is a good one, and I would say that we’d love to keep touring as much as we are, but just get to bigger venues and more people. That’s pretty much our goal. We’re working it from a grass roots point of view. If we had a song that got played on the radio, we’d feel like it was because people want to hear it and not necessarily because we were trying to push it to be on the radio. We have no qualms about being on the radio; it would be great. I’d love to get our music out to more people. The main important thing is to stay true to your music and keep on playing, and hopefully the people and the bigger venues will come with that.
SW: With the people in the band, do you find that you all have similar musical tastes or are there some differences?
CW: You know our differences seem to work out together really well. Jeff is real into country guitar picking, which is so hard. That’s where a lot of the greatest guitar players are, in country music, believe it or not. And that’s brought a really great aspect to the band. Steven Spivey, our bass player, his background is jazz, and that’s helped out a ton. And then Richard, our drummer, him listening to as much Southern music and great songwriting has also really helped, because Richard writes a lot of the lyrics. I would say that a lot of influences come to the table for this band.
SW: You mentioned that you had been together for four years now. That’s a lifetime for some bands.
CW: Well, it’s been a long time. But it’s been a labor of love. It's amazing that there are still things to find around each corner, even after four years.
SW: What’s next after this tour?
CW: This album came out in February, and we’d like to have another album out by next Spring at the latest. We’ve got the songs for it.
SW: Great, I look forward to hearing it. Anything else coming up soon?
CW: We’re looking forward to the Northeast. After that, we’ve got some really cool stuff coming up. Jeff and I are singing the National Anthem at the Braves/Padres game on August 19th, and were playing with the Black Crowes on September 24th in Alabama. And we’re going to be doing a show with Gov’mt Mule on November 12th at a Festival.
SW: Looking forward to your show. Best of luck to you with everything that’s going on.
Tishamingo visits Connecticut for two shows: Saturday, August 6th @ the Stone Bear Music Festival in Pomfret and Tuesday, August 9th in Niantic @ the McCooks Park Concert Series. Their latest disc, “Wear N’ Tear” is available on Magnatude Records and includes a bonus audio and video feature.