The Bellwether

Houndmouth is an American alternative blues band from New Albany, Indiana led by Matt Myers (guitar, vocals). Houndmouth formed in the summer of 2011. In 2013 Houndmouth’s debut album, From the Hills Below the City, was released by Rough Trade. This led to performances on Letterman, Conan, World Cafe, and several major festivals (ACL, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Newport Folk Festival). SPIN and Esquire.com named Houndmouth a “must-see” band at Lollapalooza, and Garden & Gun said, “You’d be hard pressed to find a more effortless, well-crafted mix of roots and rock this year than the debut album from this Louisville quartet.”

On their latest album Good For You, Houndmouth share a collection of songs set in places as far-flung as the Alamo and the Hudson River, each populated by a motley cast of characters: fairy-tale princesses and vampires, parking-lot lovers and wanna-be beauty queens. The result is a lovingly gathered catalogue of those wild and fleeting moments that stay lodged in our hearts forever, taking on a dreamlike resonance as years go by.

From free backyard performances on the outskirts of UT Austin’s campus to sold-out gigs at Antone’s Nightclub and The Continental Club Gallery, Briscoe’s growth — like the group’s music itself — has been organic. Bandmates Truett Heintzelman and Philip Lupton built their grassroots following the old-school way: by carving out a sound that nodded to the golden era of folk, rock, and pop music, then getting onstage and building a genuine relationship with their audience. That authenticity led to opening slots for Caamp and Zach Bryan.  Signed by ATO Records while still pursuing undergraduate degrees as college students, the Texas natives wrote West of It All as graduation loomed in the distance, funneling the stories of their college experience — from heartbreak to hard-won lessons to weekend trips into the rural countryside — into a raw, rugged blend of classic and contemporary influences.