CAPTAIN HOWDY AND THE SUNSET SERENADERS are trailblazing a new kind of psychedelic bluegrass punk that has never been fully explored. Inspired by artists like Billy Strings, Reverend Horton Heat, Split Lip Rayfield, Uncle Tupelo, and more, Captain Howdy seeks to take traditional American music into a brand new direction fueled by face-melting guitar, blast beats, and a live experience like no other.
Hailing from Kansas City, MO, this band is in a category all their own. Their main concept behind this new direction was “what if the Grateful Dead took Bluegrass a little more seriously?”
Sharing insight into the bands process, the group adds, “After our first album, HOWDY REIGNS, we noticed our more popular tracks were the traditional tunes we reimagined. They actually scored us one of our biggest shows ever opening for Futurebirds at The Granada in Lawrence. We love traditional music, but we never thought we would make it a focus of the band, but after that show were felt like we could do a whole album of traditional bluegrass and folk tunes reimagined in a psychedelic cowpunk setting.
The first two adds were Blackberry Blossom and Little Sadie, and we immediately knew this could be something that defines us as a band. Keller was also getting into the local bluegrass scene, so he was meeting players of all kinds of instruments and learning tunes all the time. He actually started a weekly series on instagram/TikTok called Fiddle Tune Fridays where he plays a new fiddle tune he learned every week. This made creating an album extremely easy. We basically picked our favorite traditional tunes from some of the best bluegrass albums ever like Manazita by Tony Rice Unit, Doc Watson, some of the electric traditional tunes performed by the Grateful Dead, and more. Although most of the album is electric, we also featured some local bluegrass musicians from Kansas for some real bonified bluegrass tunes like Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac and Rain & Snow.
Keller also added some electric fiddle tunes he liked inspired by Michael Daves. He actually was recently voted 8th best flatpicker in the state of Kansas by the Kansas State Fiddling & Picking Championship. The band was also voted 8th best in the state by the same festival.
We hope that our new album gives people an entry point into bluegrass who otherwise wouldn’t know where to start. Our song selection is based on some of the coolest cats that ever picked. And every song is a little different. Highlighted by our magnum opus, Samson & Delilah, which is our longest pure jam psychedelia track to date, and its sure to match up to some of the greatest records of all time.”
CAPTAIN HOWDY AND THE SUNSET SERENADERS have shared stages with: Pardoner, Goodnight, Texas , Futurebirds, Juan Wauters and they’ve also performed at the Hot Summer Nights festival in Austin, Texas.
| CAPTAIN HOWDY AND THE SUNSET SERENADERS: |
| James Barnett – bass, vocals, mixing/mastering |
| Jon Chappell – drums, vocals |
| Keller Welton – guitar, vocals |
| Guest musicians: |
| Arlo Fahy – mandolin (Arlonious Rodeo Kings) |
| Isaiah Sibi – fiddle (The Lost Keys, Arlonious Rodeo Kings) |
Visit CAPTAIN HOWDY AND THE SUNSET SERENADERS online:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captainhowdysunsetserenade/
Bandcamp: https://captainhowdythesunsetserenaders.bandcamp.com/
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/captain-howdy-the-sunset-serenaders/1677721633
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0A6FcHv2a0Grg6Qwvaz7b1?si=zoabnTdRQYmdPpp2gLsp-g
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