Jake Hunsinger & the Rock Bottom Band

Jake Hunsinger & the Rock Bottom Band2022-09-29T19:43:44+00:00

Project Description

Similar Artists: Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, Billy Strings

The four members of Providence, Rhode Island’s Jake Hunsinger & The Rock Bottom Band are self-described “history nerds to the extreme.” It’s no wonder this historical influence would inform a sound that often looks back to move its American roots forward in an inventive, progressive form.

Jake Hunsinger (lead singer and writer), Andrew Donnelly (lead guitar), Zack Wedge (drums), and Jamie Doyle (bass), make a focused effort to understand music history to create something entirely new. Hunsinger says, “I use unique chord patterns, melodies, and song structures based around generations of American songwriting while focusing on saying something inherently young and Gen Z/Millenial.” His singing is an attempt to deconstruct and understand how country music has been sung, tracing a line from Vernon Dalhart and Jimmie Rodgers, to Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell, to George Jones and Garth Brooks. Wedge is a jazz drummer who behaves much the same way as Hunsinger about his craft, trying to understand the cultures and history of the art of drumming as well as the people who played it.

RELEASES

Wrapped Around the Axle
Release Date: September 23, 2022

Record Label:  Hobo Castle

Jake Hunsinger and the Rock Bottom Band releases their upcoming Americana album, Wrapped Around the Axle, on September 23 through HoboCastle Records. The album explores loneliness and isolation from people, complicated feelings of identity and social pressures, and the processing of pain through anger, sadness, and poor decisions, all leading to the hope of enlightened inner peace. It’s not a concept album but an album of similar concepts often revolving around Plato’s “The Cave.” Read more

“Lorelai” (Single)
Release Date: August 18, 2022

Record Label: Hobo Castle

“Lorelai” contains references to Gilmore Girls and Letterkenny, the former for character traits and the latter for wordplay. It explores the deep exhaustion within loneliness and the absolute rejection of it in order to give yourself to another, to be vulnerable and ultimately happy. Hunsinger wrote the lead single off the album after watching Gilmore Girls with his mother. Hunsinger says, “I’ve always loved the name Lorelai and in the show, her push and pull relationship with Luke was really touching and as beautiful as it was humorous. What I strive to do in my songs is to lock into the natural humor that exists alongside intense emotion, which is key to human nature.” It plays out as a mostly one-sided conversation between the roving lonely character and Lorelai, who has to listen to him. Pairing the album title with the Letterkenny quote, the last verse encapsulates the album: “You’ve got me wrapped around the axle, but as sure as God wears sandals, I’ll be staying in your bed instead of mine.” Lauren King provides the backing vocals while essentially playing the role of the character “Lorelai.” Read more

Bio

The four members of Providence, Rhode Island’s Jake Hunsinger & The Rock Bottom Band are self-described “history nerds to the extreme.” It’s no wonder this historical influence would inform a sound that often looks back to move its American roots forward in an inventive, progressive form.

Jake Hunsinger (lead singer and writer), Andrew Donnelly (lead guitar), Zack Wedge (drums), and Jamie Doyle (bass), make a focused effort to understand music history to create something entirely new. Hunsinger says, “I use unique chord patterns, melodies, and song structures based around generations of American songwriting while focusing on saying something inherently young and Gen Z/Millenial.” His singing is an attempt to deconstruct and understand how country music has been sung, tracing a line from Vernon Dalhart and Jimmie Rodgers, to Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell, to George Jones and Garth Brooks. Wedge is a jazz drummer who behaves much the same way as Hunsinger about his craft, trying to understand the cultures and history of the art of drumming as well as the people who played it. 

Their inspiration also extends beyond musical history to a geographical and cultural blend of genres. Rollicking musical arrangements, dynamic jazz and Latin-inspired grooves, and tight hillbilly vocal harmonies support Hunsinger's high lonesome crooning to blend the traditional with the experimental. Doyle's inventive bass lines bridge the gap between Hunsinger’s country writing and Wedge’s blend of Latin, jazz, and New Orleans rhythms, while Donnelly’s ear for harmony expands the songs into a range of lushness to high and lonesome backdrops. 

Their influences are more philosophical than musical. Hunsinger says, “Springsteen and Dylan have made me want to write big epic songs with complicated information and stories crammed into my music, while Billy Joe Shaver and Father John Misty speak earnestly and simply and with a lot of humor about very serious things. George Jones’s absolute commitment to every word he sings has made me want to be a better singer. Tyler Childers’s influence is really the most obvious sonically because of his progressive and interesting approach to traditional country music.”

The songs place the human condition front and center, having an honest look inward while in good company. This is best translated at their shows where they create an inviting atmosphere where folks become vulnerable and lean in, laugh, dance, and cry, all within a single evening.  Jake Hunsinger & The Rock Bottom Band have spent the last two years putting all these nuances and moods front and center in their debut full-length album, Wrapped Around The Axle due out on Hobo Castle Records on September 23.

TOUR DATES