Steelism + The Bell Peppers

It’s a short drive from Nashville, TN, to Muscle Shoals, AL: 125 miles, or about two hours if your foot’s on the leaden side, and you’ve left one musical Mecca for another. Thanks to Nashville instrumental duo Steelism, though, that gap is bridged in the time it takes to listen to a track. Comprised of guitarist Jeremy Fetzer and pedal steel player Spencer Cullum – and backed by some of Nashville’s finest young musicians – Steelism blend an eclectic array of vintage and modern influences to create instrumental music that truly sounds like nothing else.

Though Steelism are new to the music scene, Cullum and Fetzer are not, having backed artists like Wanda Jackson, Johnny Fritz, Rayland Baxter and Andrew Combs. The two met while touring the UK with Nashville songstress Caitlin Rose, quickly bonding over their shared love for classic movie soundtrack composers like Ennio Morricone and 1960s instrumental acts like Booker T and the MGs, The Ventures and Pete Drake. Writing together between soundchecks, the duo realised it was time for the sidemen to become frontmen, and Steelism was born.

Though the two grew up on different continents (Cullum hails from Essex, England; Fetzer from Canton, OH), Cullum and Fetzer were cut from the same musical cloth, as becomes immediately evident whenever they take the stage. Their debut EP, The Intoxicating Sounds of Pedal Steel and Guitar, was met with critical acclaim, with American Songwriter’s Sean Maloney calling Steelism ‘instantly recognisable – surf, country, blues, all steeped in soul and heavy on the grooves – but astoundingly outside the contemporary vernacular’.

The duo’s full-length debut, 615 to FAME, was released by Names Records in early 2015.

Support comes from The Bell Peppers.

Price: £5 adv
More info