Josh Farrow Leaves Nashville Shimmying at the Stone Fox

Josh Farrow has been causing a ruckus in Nashville lately with airplay on the city’s iconic radio station Lightning 100 and with attention from the beloved Emmylou Harris and recent transplants The Black Keys. With his well-crafted lyrics and a voice that hits spicy and sweet like a Hot Tamale candy, it’s no wonder he’s got a good buzz going.

After listening to his recent Daytrotter session and watching his videos for the American Music Project, I was excited to see him play one of Nashville’s newest venues, The Stone Fox. I was expecting a performance in the vein of A.A. Bondy echoing pre-electric Bob Dylan, but we received something completely different.

A full band, rock-and-roll experience was laid on, and boy, was it loud. Josh Farrow held his own against the clamoring drums and electric guitar and pulverizing bass, perhaps aided by his mane of black curly hair and ‘70s-sauve.

The band did a beautiful cover of Bo Carter’s “Corrina, Corrina” with a little more pep than Dylan’s version and a lovely female harmony part. They also made us shimmy and shake on Farrow’s gospel/blues-inspired single, “Devil Don’t You Fool Me.” The drummer kept rhythm with a steel link chain to add texture to the song without drowning out Josh’s voice any further. The crowd was into it, and an extra enthusiastic couple (perhaps aided by The Stone Fox’s fabulous beer selection) even danced a few celebratory twirls and dips. Through the set, these two songs stood out amongst the rest. Why these two? For one, they were quality performances. But I also couldn’t really make out vocals on the others.

Instead of having a stage positioned to look over the whole of the rectangular space, The Stone Fox stage faces just one-third of it, creating a lot of bouncing, unbalanced sound. It makes it extra tough for singer-songwriter types to vocally compete with their band if it’s too loud. Unfortunately, Farrow and his band fell victim to this and much of the set was lost to noise.

Regardless, Josh Farrow is still on my list of awesome talent to see live. I believe hearing him in a paired down way would be riveting. If that opportunity comes your way, don’t miss it.

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Caroline McDonald

My first memory is of singing Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” quietly to myself during preschool naptime. Perhaps it’s because I’m from Nashville where an instrument lives in every home, but music has gripped me for as long as I can remember.

After dabbling in many parts of the music industry—recording studios, PR, management, labels, publishing—I’m expanding into music journalism because I’m yet to find anything more rewarding that finding and sharing new music.

A longtime sucker for girls with guitars, my musical taste unabashedly follows the songwriting lineage of Dolly Parton and includes Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, and Neko Case. But not to pigeonhole myself, my music love is big love that stretches from R.L. Burnside to Animal Collective to Lord Huron.

I’ve recently moved home to Nashville after living in Boston and Big Sur for several years. I’d forgotten how music pours onto the streets ten hours a day, seven days a week. I’m honored to share the creative explosion happening here. If your band is in the area or of the area, please reach out!