Flatland Tourists
Waxhaw, North Carolina, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | INDIE
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By Kim Becknell Williams
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A band from Waxhaw, Flatland Tourists, won the Carolinas Music Award for 2015 Americana Band of the Year.
The awards ceremony was July 18 at The Duke Energy Performing Arts Center in Raleigh.
The Carolina Music Awards, in its eighth year, recognize North and South Carolina artists in rock, hip-hop, youth, bluegrass, Americana, country and R&B. Co-founded by Roberta Flack and Randy Travis and supported by Darius Rucker, the awards promote Carolina artists and original music.
Bands are nominated by fans, then reviewed by a panel of music professionals to determine the finalists. Fans’ votes account for 50 percent of the final results; the panel determines the remaining 50 percent based on original material, performances and other criteria.
It was a thrilling experience to have our songwriting and hard work recognized by the judges and fans who voted for us.
Rachel Garcia, member of Flatland Tourists
Flatland Tourists formed in Waxhaw in 2013 with Rachel Garcia, Billy Bost, Frank Sutton, Joe Williams and Kevin Winchester. The band draws influences from styles including early country, blues, gospel, folk and early rock ’n’ roll.
The group began writing and performing at venues in the Charlotte area two years ago.
“There were so many great bands nominated, and we did not expect to win, but were honored and humbled that we did,” said Garcia, speaking for the band. “It was a thrilling experience to have our songwriting and hard work recognized by the judges and fans who voted for us. We are excited to have won this award, and hope it may help promote our next record to be released in September.”
Grammy Award-winning producer and sound engineer Mark Williams helped produced the group’s first EP. Little King Records released the band’s self-titled debut last year.
In 2015, the album spent 12 weeks in the Roots Music Report Americana Chart Top 10 with the single “No Work, No Pay,” rising to No. 2 and staying on the top 10 singles chart for 16 weeks. The band’s single “Cold Water River” rose to No. 3 and stayed on the top 10 singles chart for 10 weeks.
The band has expanded its venues beyond Charlotte, opening for national acts including Shovels and Rope and appearing at festivals throughout the region, including Tennessee’s Summer Solstice Festival and the National Whitewater Center’s River Jam.
Flatland Tourists recently finished recording its second project with Williams, scheduled for a September release.
Kim Becknell Williams is a freelance writer: kimbecknellwilliams@gmail.com.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/community/union-county/article29644402.html#storylink=cpy - Union Observer
Flatland Tourists (from the E.P. Front Porch) - The red clay of North Carolina is under the feet of Flatland Tourists. Vocalist Rachel Garcia came to the Carolinas from Kentucky, and she sings with pride on “Appalachia” as she stands tall on roots that run as deep as a ‘five county mine’. Flatland Tourists gather on Front Porch, their most recent E.P. release, but they are never far from the electrical outlets that amp up their sound. The band hones music from muses influenced by Bluegrass, Rock’n’Roll, Blues, Folk, and Country music. The playing becomes a unanimous force that barrels along the tracks as vocals are shared, as on album closer, “Tote Sack Full of Love”.
Flatland Tourists board the bus with Rachel’s percussion added to her vocals, and fill out the sound with Billy Bost (guitar, banjo, vocals), Frank Sutton (drums, percussion), Joe Willams (guitar, mandolin, harmonica, vocals), Kevin Winchester (bass, vocals), and Tom Eure (fiddle). Front Porch welcomes you in as a young girl close out her diner shift, and a young man hopes to feed his family with day work outside a Home Depot as the two become the harmony of “Sunshine Follows Rain”. Flatland Tourists casually moves between sound styles with the natural intuition of players meant to be in the same band as they glide through the title track backed by memories and the night sky thunder, and make an exit final with a goodbye note reading “Whatcha Gonna Do”.
Listen and buy the music of Flatland Tourists from AMAZON or iTunes
- See more at: http://thealternateroot.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3986:otr-101415&catid=208:what-s-trending&Itemid=268#sthash.R0DW16Jd.dpuf - The Alternate Root Magazine
When I was a little girl most of my weekends were spent accompanying my father to "pickin'" parties where his bluegrass musician friends would run through the same 35 songs every Saturday night. Aside from the occasional "Rocky Top" (which they only played out of obligation to a request) or "Fox on the Run," I didn't pay that much attention unless an odd lyric caught my ear. I remember sitting on the top bunk in a one room cabin when I began to think about the double meaning of "What Am I Doing Hangin' `Round." I grabbed a nearby rope and feigned literal hanging to my dad's amusement.
While I enjoyed the company of many of my father's friends, I was indifferent to music that had nothing in common with what I saw on MTV, "American Bandstand" (which was still on in the `80s), "Solid Gold," or even "Nashville Now." What would have caught my attention as a 7 or 8 year old girl, was a killer female vocalist and an original catalog that expanded on the 35 standards I'd heard on a weekly basis for years ("Don't they get tired of those songs, daddy?").
I could imagine my ears perking up and running toward the stage if Waxhaw's the Flatland Tourists had turned up at one of dad's bluegrass festivals. Now, Americana music is in a much different place than it was back then. And the Union County quintet isn't a straight bluegrass band, although those elements mingle with blues, folk, and country. What would have caught my ear as a kid is singer Rachel Garcia, whose soulful, bluesy voice reminds me of Rosanne Cash with a touch of Janis Joplin, but she's really got her own unique emotive sound and phrasing. When she sings "Coffee in the morning and cocaine afternoons...open the bottle, ease my pain" during "The Only Thread," the catch in her voice projects ample pain without overplaying it.
Earlier this year two of its songs - "Cold Water River" and "No Work No Pay" - made Roots Music Report's Top 10 singles chart, which tracks radio play placing the band in the company of Ryan Adams and the Carolina Chocolate Drops' Rhiannon Giddens.
The EP kicks off with "Cold Water River," which boasts lyrical harmonica that provides a counterpoint to Garcia's colorful vocals. This isn't what mainstream country is today, but its easy to imagine the Flatland Tourists singing "Cold Water River" or "Our Time (Hallelujah)" on "Hee-Haw" or "Nashville Now" back in the day.
Guitarist Joe Williams and bassist Kevin Winchester (who is also a novelist) add lyrical color by switching to a more humorous tone with "Elvis at the Fast Fare" (which you can hear in the clip above). Imagine recognizing Presley buying jelly donuts at a gas station in Knoxville (which actually is kind of what I imagined happening to Adam Ant when he lived in rural Tennessee - no joke - in the late `90s).
You can check out the Flatland Tourists' self-titled EP here or here. It's available on iTunes as well.
You can also catch them live. The band will play two acoustic sets at Waxhaw's free Art Kaleidoscope festival Saturday May 16 at 2 and 4 p.m.; at Treehouse Vineyard in Monroe Saturday May 23; and open for Shovels & Rope at NC Music Factory's Friday Live concert series June 3 and at Double Door June 13. - Charlotte Observer
Flatland Tourists’ debut EP offers the best of Americana—a big tent collection of country, rock, and folk, with a little bit of gospel thrown in for good Southern measure. The band’s sound ranges from melancholic and evocative (The Only Thread) to wonderfully, respectfully irreverent (Elvis at the Fast Fare) to foot-stomping blue grass joyfulness (Cold Water River.) The clear vocals and tight harmonies bring to mind Emmylou Harris, Alabama, even CSNY (think Southern Cross), only different. The Flatland Tourists band has its own distinct sound that pays homage to the North Carolina red clay roots of its members. My personal favorite cut? Hands down, it’s The Only Thread. Gorgeous vocals, haunting lyrics, and spartan accompaniment—music to the bare bone. - CD Baby - Nancy Pfingstag
"Check out this Great Americana Band! No big surprise that THE FLATLAND TOURISTS are topping the Americana Charts! "Thank YOU" Flatland Tourists for an amazing evening of music. It was truly an honor and a privilege to to have Y'ALL in the house - Live @ The 145 Club!" ~ Elfi Hacker, Manager, The 145 Club, 5/11/15 - Elfi Hacker - The 145 Club
Discography
Flatland Tourists: EP Released 11/04/14 Little King Records
- Cold Water River 4:00 (Garcia, Williams, BMI)
- The Only Thread 4:15 (Williams, Winchester, BMI)
- No Work , No Pay 3:54 (Garcia, -Williams, BMI)
- Our Time (Hallelujah) 4:00 (Bost, Garcia, Sutton, Williams, Winchester, BMI)
- Elvis at the Fast Fare 3:45 (Williams, Winchester, BMI)
1. Sunshine Follows Rain 4:28 (Winchester, BMI)
2. Front Porch 3:57 (Winchester, BMI)
3. Whatcha Gonna Do 3:42 (Garcia/Williams, BMI)
4. Intro to Appalachia 0:39 (Williams, BMI)
5. Appalachia 3:39 (Badger, BMI)
6. Tote Sack Full of Love 3:53 (Winchester, BMI)
Photos
Bio
They are the Carolinas Music Awards 2015 Americana Band of the Year. The Roots Music Report named their debut release #62 on their Top 200 of 2015 and the single from that record, No Work, No Pay as the #15 Folk Single of the year, putting it in the company of Jason Isbell, Rhiannon Gibbons, and James Taylor.They’ve played Americana festivals, venues, and performance centers throughout the Southeast. They’ve played opening support for national Americana act, Shovels and Rope. Their first EP spent almost two months in the Top Ten on the Roots Music Report charts. Their shows are filled with happy, smiling, dancing people. They have red clay roots and it shows in their music. Flatland Tourists started their musical journey together in 2013, and for them, every day and every gig since feels like a vacation.
One evening in 2013, a cover band was playing an outdoor show in the small town of Waxhaw, NC. It may have been serendipity or just a coincidence that guided Billy Bost, Rachel Garcia, Frank Sutton, Joe Williams, and Kevin Winchester to that show. But that evening, they found themselves standing near the water tower, listening to the other band. A week later, the first Flatland Tourists rehearsal took place. It didn’t take long before they all knew they’d found something special. They focused on writing songs, building harmonies, tightening the band.
Within a
few months, they were playing gigs at Americana venues in the Charlotte area.
More shows followed, the fan base grew. Mark Williams, Grammy winning producer
and engineer (Southern Culture on the Skids, Cast Iron Filter, Carrie Newcomer)
heard them at a show in Charlotte and they soon agreed on his involvement as
producer of their first EP. Little King Records released their self-titled
debut in 2014. The EP spent 12 weeks in the Roots Music Report Americana Chart
Top Ten with the single “No Work, No Pay” rising as high as #2 and staying in
the Top Ten Singles chart for 16 weeks, and the single “Cold Water River”
rising as high as #3 and staying in the Top Ten Singles chart for 10 weeks. The band has played opening support for national acts such as Shovels and Rope, and
have appeared at festivals throughout the region like Tennessee’s Summer
Solstice Festival and the National Whitewater Center’s River Jam.
Their songs are honest and real. Their live shows are just that—lively, and everybody leaves happy and smiling. Yes, their music reflects a wide range of influences: country, blues, bluegrass, jam, early rock, even jazz elements. One common thread is evident through all their influences, though, and that’s the band’s connection to American roots music. It’s the music their parents and grandparents sang to them, played for them, and later, with them. It’s evident in their musicianship, the way they blend their harmonies, and even in their song-writing. This band is not a collective of musicians playing Americana music—they’ve lived it. It’s a sound born in their blood and bone, you know that as soon as you hear their first notes, the minute you see them on stage.
Courtney Devores writes in Sound Bites: “Singer Rachel Garcia’s soulful, bluesy voice reminds me of Rosanne Cash with a touch of Janis Joplin, but she's really got her own unique emotive sound and phrasing” and that their songs “place the band in the company of Ryan Adams and the Carolina Chocolate Drops' Rhiannon Giddens.”
In CD Review, Nancy Pfingstag writes: “Flatland Tourists’ debut EP offers the best of Americana—a big tent collection of country, rock, and folk, with a little bit of gospel thrown in for good Southern measure. The band’s sound ranges from melancholic and evocative (The Only Thread) to wonderfully, respectfully irreverent (Elvis at the Fast Fare) to foot-stomping blue grass joyfulness (Cold Water River.) The clear vocals and tight harmonies bring to mind Emmylou Harris, Alabama, even CSNY (think Southern Cross), only different. The Flatland Tourists band has its own distinct sound that pays homage to the North Carolina red clay roots of its members. Gorgeous vocals, haunting lyrics, and spartan accompaniment—music to the bare bone."
So, no, the band doesn’t think coincidence brought them together that evening by the water tower. Instead, they know some form of musical karma, some force in the musical universe brought them together. You can see it when they play live, you can hear it in their music. More than that, you can feel it. They play the music of their southern, roots heritage, the music that courses through their blood and bones. They play it with peace and love in their hearts and nothing makes them happier than sharing it with their fans because, after all, we’re all Tourists on this journey, aren’t we?
Band Members
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