A Nashville institution, the Tennessee Warblers have been jamming folky grooves since 2014 with a rotating cast of pickin’ pals culled from Music City’s vibrant bluegrass and Grateful Dead community.
John Beck and Adam Dalton met while performing together in various projects and bonded over the acoustic music of Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. On a winter’s eve, they tried their hands at co-writing and the song “Restless” was born. Soon thereafter the Warblers took flight performing in and around Music City before starting what was to become a 5 year residency at Nashville’s legendary Sutler Saloon.
There the group honed their sound and was featured on the Travel Channel’s Food Paradise. In 2016 they released their debut EP of which the Murfreesboro Pulse called “a solid debut peppered with well-played instrumental breaks, and recommended for fans of Americana and Southern folk.”
They stayed busy touring, performing at festivals (Hoedown on the Harpeth Bluegrass Festival, Nashville Predators’ Craft Beer Festival, East Nashville Beer Festival) and periodically orchestrated tributes to their heroes, performing Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline and the Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72 albums in their entirety.
After distilling some fresh songs, they linked up with engineer Nathan Yarborough (The Mavericks, Leanne Rimes, Mastodon) to cut their debut record live in the warm wood walls of Madison, TN’s Bluegrass Compound. Seated together in a circle in the shotgun cabin hall, they took turns calling tunes from their repertoire and let the tape roll.
The resulting record, Small Town Songs, was released in November 2022 to which Ana Lee of WMOT Roots Radio 89.5FM called, “A really fun album. A lotta great covers. A lotta great originals.” Edd Hurt of the Nashville Scene wrote, “Small Town Songs makes me happy to know the Nashville bluegrass-Dead community is thriving.”
In 2023 the group performed the record on their Small Towns Tour, collaborated with Midnight North at the Touch of Brews Music Festival and of all things sang to Chuck Norris AND survived!
The band continues to serve up a fun mix of rootsy originals and cherry picked covers to all who’ll lend an ear.