ROUGH & TUMBLE IN OLIVETTE

The Rough & Tumble, a dynamic duo comprised of Mallory Graham and Scott Tyler, have been captivating audiences with their unique blend of dumpster-folk and thrift store-Americana for over a decade. The Pennsylvania-born Graham and Central California's Tyler have a knack for weaving together elements of joy, sorrow, comedy, and drama in their music, leaving audiences on the edge of their seats. On November 24, 2024, the band released their new record, Hymns for My Atheist Sister & Her Friends to Sing Along To.

An album for the faithful, the faithless and the somewhere-in-between. The Rough & Tumble’s latest, Hymns for My Atheist Sister & Her Friends to Sing Along To, is a record wherein all are welcome. For those that are brokenhearted from a faith that didn't love them back, those who are still carrying religious baggage, or those who are continuing in the faith they were taught as children. It's an album about truth, about mystery, and most importantly about loving your neighbor. This message is at the forefront of the vocally expansive opening track and first single “Love Them Too,” released October 4, 2024.

In contrast to their full-band 2023 studio album Only This Far, Mallory Graham & Scott Tyler’s approach to this record is a path less traveled. Instead of the band’s signature unpredictable multiple instrumentation, they created a challenge of using less. All instrumentation on this record was limited to what Graham was permitted to have in her church growing up– piano, organ, guitar, and tambourine. This intention meant that The Rough & Tumble would lean heavily on the human voice– and not just their own. Orchestrating from across the country, the duo called on fellow musicians Dave Coleman, Alice Wallace, Flagship Romance, Halley Neal, The Honey Badgers, Ordinary Elephant & Sam Robbins to fly in vocals from afar. The result is what the duo calls “The Congregation of Kind Souls.” The collaboration not only forms an irrepressibly emotive sound, but embodies the theme of inclusion and acceptance, as each artist utilized their artistic voice with full creative license without Graham & Tyler dictating specific notation.

The limitation of instrumentation does not limit the capacity of feeling and strength for these 10 songs. In fact, The Rough & Tumble noted that by instituting these arbitrary rules, it allowed creative growth in much the same way that their religious upbringing did– an opportunity to transcend beyond barriers to something bigger and more beautiful than themselves.

Hymns for My Atheist Sister & Her Friends To Sing Along To is already profoundly reaching live audiences as the band performs on tour– for both the religious and irreligious. The Rough & Tumble are walking a tightrope– not of neutrality, but of radical love that appeals to the heartstrings of a wide array of audiences– most poignantly in a time of a country critically divided.

The curious listener may not be able to decipher the particulars of the band’s beliefs from listening to the record– and that might be the point. Hymns for My Atheist Sister & Her Friends to Sing Along To is neither dogma nor doctrine, but a direct path to the soul.

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