A couple weekends ago, Deli writer Dh Wright went out on the road with Nashville’s all-instrumental Deep Machine and wrote about their travels. Due to the narrative’s length, we decided to split this one up, so stay tuned in the coming week for more of Wright’s account…
The ship hovers toward Chattanooga; there was a procedure to make sure that we had enough oil and coolant to keep the van afloat for a few hundred miles south to Chattanooga, Montevallo, AL and back. Without a spare tire we were moving luck aside for leg room and positive karma. We were leaving behind the Land of Manson, miles outside of the city where he said he would return to Woodbury whenever he gets out – he might even be there already.
I was traveling with Nashville’s Deep Machine for a story about redemption, fame and the pursuit of success through touring and whether it was possible to survive off gigs alone, or so I thought. The story took unexpected turns as the opportunity to survive on creativity comes with a cost.
I remember the days when going to an instrumental show only happened with enough drugs to embrace the lights and scene and not run away from it all, but Deep Machine is different and this difference drew me to the trip. The band’s genre is pure instrumental, with contemporary influences like Fleet Foxes, Phillip Glass, Tool and The Fugees, to the classical and jazz influences of John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
We were out of Nashville. Away from the cynics who had abandoned the city for Austin, TX. Moving down the state line tugboating a trailer of musical equipment, most of which had experienced each and every venue in Nashville. I had known the band before, mostly from the perimeters of catching late night sets among the tranced-out refugees escaping university boredom. Brennan Walsh , Ben Crannel, and Brian Cline I had seen before, but Zack Bowden was new to the band. Brennan played in Thief, a rock ‘n’ roll tantrum with classic rock and psychedelic/experimental sound. Thief played most everywhere in the mid-state during the past few years. Crannel had played in other bands that mostly toured the college town of Murfreesboro, TN, where Deep Machine formed. The story begins that each had a gig the same night and in between sets Walsh, the guitar player of Thief, and Crannel, the drummer of Childhood TV Stars took up their instruments in between sets and Deep Machine was formed. Brian joined after moving into town from Oklahoma with friend Jon Conant of Penicillin Baby to attend the recording program at MTSU. Brian was a natural fit in the band. And Bowden is fresh and already in the pocket, the way all bass players should be.
