Trailers on Bricks
The Damn Shames play songs from their debut album, Trailers on Bricks, on Saturday in Glasgow at The Grove-KY with over 500 patrons present. The band is comprised of, from left, Adrian Heil, Trevor Smith, Zach Coffey on drums, Clayton Crowder, Andrew Hopper, and Shepherd Hieb. PHOTO | Rob Taber
The Damn Shames’ first album performed at the Grove-KY
Allyson Dix
“It’s reckless in the right ways, steady where it counts, and never short on soul.”
These are the words of Candace Barbee on the debut album Trailers On Bricks by The Damn Shames. Barbee is the marketing director for The Grove-KY in Glasgow, where The Damn Shames were special guests last Saturday night.
The band is a self-proclaimed “unapologetic set of true rockers who have turned more inward to their country and wooded upbringing”. The band consists of Clayton Crowder (lead vocals/guitar), Trevor Smith (lead guitar/background vocals), Andrew Hopper (bass/background vocals), Zach Coffey (drums), and the band’s newest, all-around musician: Shepherd Hieb.
The band brings classic southern swagger mixed with country flavors, giving extra pop to honest, heartfelt lyrics.
While all the band members are from Kentucky, two are a bit more local. Crowder is from Morgantown and Smith’s roots are in Burkesville. The band met and formed in Bowling Green and played one of their first ever shows at The Grove.
Now, two years later, their first full-length album was released on June 20, one that the band worked with Gem City Studios out of Jellico, Tennessee, to produce.
“When we started forming this band in 2022, I had a small collection of songs I had already written that we worked up together as a band and we wrote the rest of the record together,” Crowder said. “We’ve been chipping away at it slowly for the better part of two years now.”
Crowder is the front-and-center songwriter for the group, but others pitch in on composition as well as Bowling Green native Kyle Daniels.
Crowder said he draws his inspiration for song lyrics from not only personal experiences, but also the same of others close to him. He keeps a running record of interesting things he picks up through conversations with others, so he’s not just writing stories about his life, but also the lives and experiences of others. He said the songs are about the everyday lives of Kentuckians with some lyrics only local folks can relate to.
The Damn Shames is an inquisitive band name and to put the question to rest, the Barren County Progress asked Crowder how the clever name came about.
“We were recording as a part of a different band at an earlier time, and we all went back to this crummy, junk roach motel in Jellico,” Crowder explained. “We realized none of us really liked the songs we were recording at the time, and we made the decision to start a new band.”
The group stayed up into the early morning hours combing, more or less, for a new direction and a new path. In Crowder’s records on his phone where he takes note of inspirational titles and phrases, they came across one he had written down in the past: The Damn Shames.
Frontman Clayton Crowder, at right, and Trevor Smith with The Damn Shames perform songs from their debut full-length album on June 21 at The Grove-KY venue in Glasgow. The band was a special guest on Saturday night alongside Them Dirty Roses. PHOTO | Rob Taber
“We had us a good old laugh for a long time because that explains all of us to a T–we couldn’t win for losing,” Crowder said. “If it wasn’t for bad luck, we wouldn’t have any at all so we thought that fit perfectly and it has stuck ever since.”
The band ultimately kicked off back in 2022 at The Grove and came full circle with the June 21 performance of songs from the new album, a day after its release.
“The Grove is probably our absolute favorite venue in the vicinity,” Crowder said. “This past Saturday was a big deal for us with a lot of important people there to come see us and we worked on the set for this past weekend for months and months in advance to get it tight and tied down really well.”
To his surprise, over 500 people came out to Glasgow’s show Saturday night.
The band hopes to see this album take off, especially with all the pride and hard work they’ve invested into it, with little rest in between juggling their day jobs and their passion for music.
“We hope this album takes us to a position where we can do this full time, and in order to do what we love to do, we hope to get to that place where we can solely focus on creating music,” Crowder said. “As confident and proud as we are of this record lasting a long time, we are going to start on album #2 very soon.”
Barbee says the new album is the musical equivalent of a dusty backroad drive a little over the speed limit.
“It’s a sound that’s all their own, yet warmly familiar, with Eagles-style harmonies, Tom Petty guitar tones, all while borrowing a lyrical roadmap sketched out by frontman Clayton Crowder,” Barbee said. “Their sonic fingerprint is distinct, grounded in strong songwriting and an obvious love for the roots they’re expanding upon.”
It would be a shame to miss out on The Damn Shames because they can be found on many streaming platforms including Apple Music and Spotify. Give it a listen!
The Damn Shames have upcoming shows through October in Kentucky and Tennessee, keeping true to their roots. The next show is August 6 in Somerset. To learn more about show dates, visit thedamnshamesofficial.com. Also on the website, links to The Damn Shames’ YouTube channel is accessible and has music videos and live performances.
