The Music City Doughboys play 100% authentic, feel-good music with no artificial ingredients, flavors or additives, organically sourced from their Western Swing and Bluegrass roots in Lubbock, TX and Falmouth, KY, now served fresh out of Nashville, TN. Their unique recipe includes extracts from many of the staple feel-good artists, including classics Bob Wills, Nat King Cole, Spade Cooley, Stevie Wonder, and current artists Michael Bublé, Dwight Yokam, and Jamie Cullum, all blended into the original songwriting of frontmen/twin fiddlers Billy McClaran and Brandon Godman.
In fact, 75% songs on their eponymous debut album are originals. “When you listen to the album, you attract to tunes like “Powder Keg,” and “Not my Kind of Baby,” and “World is my Prison,” and “Infiddility.” All these tunes are timeless originals that can stand by themselves,” says Billy. “We’re not trying to copy Ray Price, or Bill Monroe, or Bob Wills. But that’s the sound that pours out of us because that’s what we love and grew up on.”
Both Brandon and Billy had some mileage under their belts before they even thought of creating the Doughboys. Brandon has been on tour with the Band Perry, Jon Pardi and 3x Bluegrass Female Vocalist of the Year Dale Ann Bradley, and Billy has been playing with Jon Pardi and Sara Evans. Though they love their work on the road, they were craving to work on more personal musical projects. “Billy and I both grew up studying fiddling and wide varieties of music,” says Godman. “Unfortunately there aren’t many gigs out there that allow us to play this music or even play fiddle for a full show. Nothing is really feeding our musical souls in this way.”
Consequently, the Music City Doughboys became an outlet for Billy and Brandon’s own songwriting and musical ideas, calling the band an American music songwriter band in the vein of western folk music. There is something about these young men bringing the swing style into modern day that has been turning heads and bringing people to their feet whenever the Doughboys take the stage. In June, they’ll perform on Music City Root’s annual Barn Dance Night, and they are frequent performers at the Nashville’s own World Famous Station Inn. The first time Marcia Campbell of WSM 650AM’s All-Nighter radio show heard the group, she flatly said, “Where the heck have you all been?”
Despite their own virtuosity, it’s ultimately the down-to-earth, common man, feel-good vibes that drive the Doughboys. Merle Travis once said that Western Swing was, “nothing more than a group of talented country boys, unschooled in music, but playing the music they feel, beating a solid two-four rhythm to the harmonies that buzz around their brains. When it escapes in all its musical glory, my friend, you have Western Swing.” Says Brandon, “Back then the focus was still on the song, not on how good your fourth solo is going to be. If you listen to some of the early Western Swing, they played simple tunes that meant something- but it felt good and they played and they danced and that’s what we’re trying to do, too.”
“The Doughboys are, in my opinion, possibly 'The Next Big Thing' - A super-talented band, playing incredible music with the great influences of Big Band, Western Swing and Country. The Doughboys strong vocals, great musicianship and fresh new sound make them one of the best bands in town.”
—MIKE JOHNSON - ACM Steel Guitarist of the Year
“McClaran and Godman have a youthful zeal, singing and playing twin fiddle runs, harmonizing with exciting precision, and writing songs that seamlessly merge classic and contemporary points of view. Popular music history has proven over and over that that kind of spark is enough to start something.”
—Jewly Hight, Nashville Scene