Hailing from Fort Worth, Texas, The Will Callers are a duo that has been playing together since they were about 13 years old. Daniel Slatton and Jake Murphy met each other at church, and not too much later, Murphy picked up a guitar, Slatton took up the drums and they began performing.
Using gear such as and ’70s Ludwig drums with ’50s and ’70s cymbals, an old Silvertone and a ’60s Gibson amp, The Will Callers produce a sound that can only be described as having swagger. When you hear it, you can’t help but feel like you’re the coolest person in the world, and you’re ready to waltz into any room with their newest album, What Else is Left?, playing in the background. What is made even clearer from their sound, however, are their influences. When asked, the boys explain, “We like a lot of rock and roll, blues stuff. We love bands like The Rolling Stones, The Band, Faces, Little Feat, and Gram Parsons.”
The writing style of these two is even more interesting. They explain that, as many do other bands, they write their music at the same time as their lyrics. However, the pair comments that some of their music comes from “sparks of frustration, especially when we can’t actually get anything out there, we get frustrated and sit down and hammer things out.”
Their favorite show was played at The Shed, in Maryville, Tennessee, and they would open for The Band if they could. They are The Will Callers, and their newest album is nothing short of fun, catchy, and addictive. Once you turn them on, you won’t even think about turning them off, and you’ll catch yourself listening to them all day.
GENRE: Country/Rock
HOMETOWN: Fort Worth, TX
ARTISTIC APPROACH: Writing music from sparks of frustration.
MORE INFO: thewillcallers.bandcamp.com
photo by Chris Skupien