MUSIC

The Tennessee Warblers are practitioners of Americana jamgrass with an emphasis on folksy harmony & song.

A Nashville institution, the Tennessee Warblers have been jamming folky grooves in and around Music City since 2014.

John soaked in Northern Illinois bluegrass traditions before making a detour to Colorado, the jamgrass capital of the world. In an effort to round out his musical education he headed south to the home of country music.

raised on the Boston folk scene, adam majored in Music Performance & Sound Recording at UMASS Lowell before venturing south toward the nexus of roots, rock and southern soul.

Luke surfed on California waves and the sound of Jerry Garcia’s guitar before picking up the bass and touring the country. Eventually landing in Music City with his musical life partner, Ginger Sands, he’s continued to keep the groove and foster community through music.

John Beck and Adam Dalton met while performing together in various projects and bonded over the acoustic music of Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. On a winter’s eve, they tried their hands at co-writing and the song “Restless” was born. Soon thereafter the Warblers took flight performing in and around Music City before starting what was to become a 5 year residency at Nashville’s legendary Sutler Saloon.

They stayed busy touring, performing at festivals (Hoedown on the Harpeth Bluegrass Festival, Nashville Predators’ Craft Beer Festival, East Nashville Beer Festival) and periodically orchestrated tributes to their heroes, performing Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline and the Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72 albums in their entirety.

After distilling some fresh songs, they linked up with engineer Nathan Yarborough (The Mavericks, Leanne Rimes, Mastodon) to cut their debut record live in the warm wood walls of Madison, TN’s Bluegrass Compound. Seated together in a circle in the shotgun cabin hall, they took turns calling tunes from their repertoire and let the tape roll.

The resulting record, Small Town Songs, was released in November 2022 to which Ana Lee of WMOT Roots Radio 89.5FM called, “A really fun album. A lotta great covers. A lotta great originals.” Edd Hurt of the Nashville Scene wrote, “Small Town Songs makes me happy to know the Nashville bluegrass-Dead community is thriving.”

In 2022, Luke Sands joined the band on upright bass. As a trio, the band has supported the release of the new record in a ‘Small Towns Tour’ throughout the region. In 2023, the band played on WMOT’s Finally Friday and collaborated with Midnight North at the Touch of Brews Music Festival. Also, notably, they sang to Chuck Norris AND survived! 2024 brought sold out shows at the world famous Station Inn, and performances at 3rd and Lindsley and clubs and theatre's throughout the South.

The band continues to serve up a fun mix of rootsy originals and cherry picked covers to all who’ll lend an ear.