Park Foundation Music App

Home > Artists

Starlings, TN

Americana band from Austin, Texas. "UFOs spotted over Music City, USA? Just maybe…alien meddling is a pretty plausible explanation for Starlings, TN and its otherworldly hybridization of Celtic-flavored bluegrass, old-time string music and they-are-out-there psychedelia."- No Depression "Ex-punk rockers Steve Stubblefield (formerly of the Methadone Actors) and Tim Bryan (formerly of the Habitual Sex Offenders) founded the group in the late '90s. The two eventually hooked up with T.J. Larkin and Jose Lovato. (The latter would leave the group shortly after the debut album was completed.) Stubblefield, who had been exposed to gospel music in his Baptist minister grandfather's church, drew inspiration for the Starlings, TN from listening to the archival albums of renowned folk collector Alan Lomax and from meeting noted dulcimer player David Schnaufer (Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams Jr.). Stubblefield eventually came upon the sound he wanted for his new group when he bought a dulcimer and took lessons on the instrument from Schnaufer. The group's debut found them exploring tradition yet wrapping it in utterly forward-thinking arrangements and production."- All Music Guide "(After a hiatus, Steve Stubblefield) resumed recording as Starlings, TN in 2009 and, in 2011, moved to Austin and began playing with his old friend Bryan Robison, who'd revolutionize Starlings' sound by adding electric guitar. They soon recruited Mitchell Vandenburg on upright bass. While recording 2012's Heartache in 4/4 Time, Stubblefield received a message from Tim Bryan, whom he hadn't spoken to in eight years. He wanted to come through and record on the album. Their friendship rekindled and Bryan moved down and joined the band, his effect-heavy dulcimer bowing becoming the final ingredient in the reconstructed Starlings.