San Marcos Record, San Marcos, TX

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  • Gabriel Marshall (left) and Bryon White of The Damn Quails. The two met at Woody Fest several years ago.

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January 27, 2012

More than OK in Oklahoma

Norman duo to perform at Texas Music Theater Saturday

By Jeff Walker Features Editor

San Marcos — It’s no coincidence that Bryon White grew up in Shawnee, Okla., less than 40 miles from the town of Okemah where one of the most revered folk singers ever was raised.

White thinks a lot of Woody Guthrie, and his general affection for roots music shows up all over his band the Damn Quails’ debut album “Down the Hatch.”

“You can’t grow up in Oklahoma and not be into him,” White said of Guthrie.

And it was at Woody Fest, the annual Okemah event that pays homage to Guthrie, where White met fellow songwriter Gabriel Marshall, the other half of the Damn Quails’ duo. The band will perform Saturday at the Texas Music Theater in downtown San Marcos.

On “Down the Hatch,” the pair, backed by mandolin and fiddle, makes music in the vein of that on-the-road romanticism that helps define the Americana music tradition.

The musical arrangements are solid, crisp and to the point, the harmonies warm and effortless.

All  this has lead, of course, to a boatload of press for the Oklahoma boys.

“It’s been ridiculous actually. It’s been really great news every day,” White said. “When we started out with this deal, we figured it could have gone one of two ways: People would get it or they wouldn't. And it seems like they have.”

White and Marshall swap songs throughout “Down the Hatch,” with White writing and singing on the even numbered tracks and his bandmate the odd. It’s a well-calculated move in studio for the two musicians who started everything off by trading songs back and forth.

Two years ago the two began doing a song swap at The Deli in Norman, a seven-night-a-week music joint on the “campus corner” at The University of Oklahoma. There, 8 to 10 friends and fellow musicians gather to play each other’s songs in a casual atmosphere. White and Marshall still meet there every Monday, though they no longer publicize the gig.

“It kind of exploded (after they began the song swaps),” White said.

The record appears on Oklahoman and “red dirt country” veteran Mike McClure’s new 598 Recordings label. Right before Christmas break their record debuted at #26 on the national Americana Music Chart, just ahead of Willie Nelson.  This week they are at #11.

The news, it seems, keeps getting better and better for a band that just, as White says, “sits around the sticks and plays music.”

“As a humongous fan, it’s huge being ahead of Tom Waits (in the current Americana charts)... We’re just trying to ride the wave and make the best of it,” White said.  “I can’t say it’s bad. We’ve been enjoying the heck out of it.”

(The band is opening for Midnight River Choir. For tickets visit www.tmtsm.com. For more information on the band visit www.thedamnquails.com)

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