"Everybody's dancing, y'all — it's about that time," Allen Thompson sings during the first minute of LadyCouch's Future Looks Fine, setting the tone for a debut album rooted in groove, soul, and the family-like bond of 12 musicians.
A southern-rock jam band fronted by Thompson and co-founder Keshia Bailey, LadyCouch brings together a lineup of songwriters, horn players, harmony singers, and first-rate instrumentalists. The result is a larger-than-life sound inspired by the revue bands of the 1970s, bringing a contemporary approach to the timeless influence of Delaney & Bonnie, Little Feat, and Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen. Funky and fiercely loyal, LadyCouch's members are a community unto themselves, writing optimistic songs about the struggles and triumphs that connect us all.
"We choose to make it through hard times by being together," says Bailey, who previously cut her teeth in the throwback soul group Magnolia Sons.
"There will always be struggle. You can sit and bask in it, or you can keep moving forward. For me, the best option is bond together and sing it out. That's what this band does for me. LadyCouch heals me."
Before teaming up with Bailey, Thompson released four albums of psychedelic folk music as the frontman of Allen Thompson Band. Meanwhile, LadyCouch's other members — trombonist Diego Vasquez and the Nashville Horns, Robert Gay and Paul Thacker; recording engineer, co-producer, and bassist Gordon Persha; as well as Grayson Downs, Clint Maine, and Ray Dunham, all veterans from Allen Thompson Band — left their own marks on the city's music scene, creating music that nodded to their influences while still exploring new territory. Together, this family of musicians now make their LadyCouch debut with 2021's Future Looks Fine, a high-spirited album recorded at Todd Snider's rehearsal space and hangout headquarters — the Purple Building — in East Nashville.
"We were planning on using the Purple Building as a place to rehearse and do pre-production," Thompson remembers. "When we arrived, we realized Todd had already outfitted the place to record his own record. JoJo Hermann from Widespread Panic had left his brand new upright piano there, too for his weekly quarantine streams. We recorded a few tracks, assuming they'd be demos, but then we listened to the recording and heard the energy present in the first and second takes, so we just kept going. With Todd's blessing, we made the rest of Future Looks Fine in that room, after Todd finished recording First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder with the same engineer, Colin Cargile. Listening back, I think you can hear that connection between both albums. It's obvious we were all in the same place. Not just physically but musically and emotionally as well.”
Co-produced and engineered by Persha, Future Looks Fine finds LadyCouch writing about personal matters — heartbreak, brotherhood, and friendship — as well as the modern world outside, with songs that tackle thorny issues like social struggle and crooked politics. The songs are laced with layered harmonies, entwined electric guitars, and swirling organ, driven forward by melodic hooks as big as the band's lineup. Gluing everything together is LadyCouch's clear appreciation for one another. In a town filled with musicians, they're something rare: a genuine band of brothers and sisters, choosing to rally against the setbacks of today's world by holding each other aloft.
Photos
Brooke Stevens, Michael Weintrob, Mickey Dobo
VIDEOS
August Varustin, Brooke Stevens, Joshua Black Wilkins
Contact
booking admin@ladycouch.com
publicity Taylor Esche
management Clif Doyal
“It’s rare for a regular soul band to know what to do with the guitars, and it’s equally rare for a rock band to know what to do with the horns. Essentially though, LadyCouch is its own animal and, unless it has escaped this humble scribe’s attention, nobody else in town is doing what they do. They’re also a hell of a lot of fun.” - Tommy Womack for Madisonian Magazine
“Everything {LadyCouch} has released so far sounds amazing, the recordings, the quality of the songs, the arrangements, everything. The video for “Good God” is so creative and the song is moving.” WMOT radio Nashville.
“There are hundreds of musicians in East Nashville, but Allen Thompson might be the only one who could organize a successful parade down Gallatin Pike on 24 hours notice” Craig Havighurst
“With a horn section that complements the guitar-bass-drums-keyboards bottom that soul bands have been using for decades, the group evokes, say, The Electric Flag and maybe even Sly and the Family Stone. There’s also a slight jam-band overlay that doesn’t get in the way of the album’s concise tunes, and at its best — the sprung-rhythmed “Free to Breathe” and the post-Stax Records groover “Good God” — the trickiness of the horn licks merge with the communitarian lyrics in fine fashion.” Edd Hurt, Nashville Scene