For most musicians, taking your act on the road is part of the deal. Some take it more seriously than others.
The Rough & Tumble, the Americana duo of Mallory Graham and Scott Tyler, gave up their Nashville apartment in 2015 after an extended period when their landlord declined to fix their broken heater. They bought a camper and started touring.
Since then, they’ve been on the move, including regular stops in the Upper Valley.
“It’s been really a great way to get to know the country and our audience,” Tyler said in a phone interview.
The Rough & Tumble bring their act, which they describe on their website as “dumpster-folk/thriftstore Americana,” to Haverhill’s Alumni Hall on Friday night.
The show is one of several featuring traditional, jazz or pop this weekend (more about those later).
Having listened to some of The Rough & Tumble’s most recent record, We’re Only Family If You Say So, I’m not sure I agree with their self-description. They sound a lot more polished than anything that might come out of a dumpster. In places, Tyler’s guitarwork calls to mind the assertive playing of REM’s Peter Buck, and Graham’s lead vocals are refreshingly straightforward. Their songs live in that vast territory loosely fenced in by country, folk and the high lonesome, Midwestern rock of bands like The Jayhawks.
The expansive umbrella term Americana exists for a reason.
They also sound like they’ve been playing together for ages. They’ve been writing and performing together since 2007, after meeting at a semester-long music program on Martha’s Vineyard. They formed The Rough & Tumble in 2011 and took to their camper in 2015.
They were married in 2016, the same year they made their first stop in the Upper Valley, at Bradford’s (Vt.) Summer Street Music Series. Since then, they’ve made regular stops, performing at Alumni Hall, the Corinth Coffeehouse and other venues.
Living in a camper has allowed them to chart their own course in a way most bands can’t.
“When you’re touring and you have a home to get back to, you try to hit the cities,” Graham said.
At one point, a woman who saw them perform in Sioux Falls, S.D., saw their route and said that if they were willing to drive an hour out of their way they could play for an audience in her garage, Graham said. They went, and they’ve played more than a few shows like it, in living rooms and backyards.
The COVID-19 pandemic put a crimp in their wandering.
“It’s actually a very dependent lifestyle,” Graham said. They need to find places with water and electricity.
They were in Arizona and spent time with Tyler’s parents in California, then went backpacking in South Dakota, stayed a month in Alabama and three months in a cabin in the woods in South Carolina with no electricity or internet. They heard the 2020 election results on the radio.
“It was a strange hop-around, but we got a taste for being still,” Graham said. Now in their mid-30s, they might be ready to settle down.
Their show at Alumni Hall will be the third in the venerable venue since it reopened late last month. After holding a couple of outdoor concerts on Haverhill Common, Court Street Arts, the nonprofit that programs Alumni Hall, has set up a limited fall season, Patricia Buchanan, president of Haverhill Heritage, said Wednesday.
Previous shows were about half full, Buchanan said. Like many venues, Alumni Hall is requiring masks and proof of vaccination, measures that have been well-received by audiences, Buchanan said.
“There’s still a lot of reluctance from people,” she said. With the low turnout, the hall likely will be shut down for the winter, she added.
Performing in the late pandemic, if that’s where we are, has been “a different animal,” Graham said. Audiences are enthusiastic, but unsteady.
“We’re excited to be out again, but we don’t know how to be out anymore,” Graham said.
Tickets to see The Rough & Tumble ($20), are available at courtstreetarts.org. Court Street Arts also operates a café that sells dinner, beer and wine before shows.
This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s enough to indicate the number of musical options is growing.
The Anonymous Coffeehouse, in Lebanon’s First Congregational Church, hosts Thetford guitarist Ed Eastridge and longtime collaborator singer Lydia Gray to play jazz and Latin standards on Friday evening. They have a new recording coming out soon as well.
Joining them are Mark Burds, a young folk singer-songwriter, and Americana’s Most Wanted, a quintet.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Admission is by donation. Masking, distancing and vaccination are required.
Also Friday evening, Jennifer Grout, a Vermont-based musician who nearly won Arabs Got Talent when she appeared on the show in 2013, will sing original songs and accompany herself on the oud, a traditional Arab lute. Percussionist Colin Henkel will accompany her.
Tickets are available on a “pay what you can” basis, both for in-person listening and via live streaming.
Go to chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-9878 for more information.
Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.
