Vandoliers

Regional music at its most inspired: taking an old tradition and giving it a hard twist.

— Paste Magazine
Vandoliers are deadly onstage

— Rolling Stone
They are as capable of summoning the passionate, galvanizing spirit of the Gaslight Anthem and the rowdy punk defiance of the Dropkick Murphys as they are siphoning the gas out of Jason and the Scorchers’ moonshining hot rod.

— Elmore Magazine
As if they were children of Jon Langford, this six-piece Dallas-Fort Worth group is the new face of insurgent country. You can taste the Texas dust in their mix of defiant cowpunk, rugged Red Dirt country, resilient Tejano, twang, and groove taken to the next level.

— No Depression
What might have been had Lucero been a little more Texas than Tennessee

— Dying Scene
If there was a perfect remake of already perfect 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' or a 'A Fistful of Dollars' the only band that could pull off the soundtrack would be Vandoliers.

— Buddy Magazine
A triumphant Old West feel, something that puts you in mind of in the closing scene of an old John Wayne film — if, say, Guy Ritchie were directing it.

— Americana Highways
If the Pogues were from Texas instead of Ireland, they might sound something like the Vandoliers.

— Americana Highways
Josh Fleming and company have brilliantly combined punk, country, Tejano, and rockabilly influences to create a dynamic and modern cowpunk staple.

— Noisey
A six-piece cowpunk band that took Fleming's punk and ska roots and dressed them up with acoustic guitar, brass, and fiddle for a jet-fueled take on the Texas two-step.

— Rolling Stone Country
...as if Calexico and Dropkick Murphys got together for a fiesta.

— Dallas Observer
Blends their Texan identities with Tejano, cowpunk, Americana and classic country sensibilities, creating what may be one of the most interestingly cohesive sounds in decades.

— The Boot
The lyrical and instrumental foundations of Texas country greats delivered with an intensity usually reserved for punk rock bands like Rancid, Social Distortion...

— Wide Open Country
With a boisterous mix of Telecasters, fiddles, horns, and banjos, the Vandoliers set late-night, honkytonk and bits of bluegrass against Joshua Fleming’s strained, punk rock croon.

— No Depression
They’re genre-bending, Tex-Mex punk that sounds like someone dropped NOFX in the middle of Corpus-Christi.

— No Depression

Hometown:

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX

Vandoliers are the next wave of Texas music. The six-piece Dallas-Fort Worth group channels all that makes this vast state unique: tradition, modernity, audacity, grit, and—of course—size.

Formed in 2015, the self-proclaimed "Converse cowboys" emerged from a group of Dallas-Fort Worth musicians who'd already logged more than a decade in their own punk and folk bands. Vandoliers mix raw, rough-edged roots music with the focused, fiery storytelling of frontman Joshua Fleming, who says of joining Bloodshot:

"When we received the invitation to perform at Bloodshot's annual SXSW party we were completely beside ourselves. Being from the same hometown as our heroes the Old 97’s, we've grown up fans of the label and have wanted to be a Bloodshot band since day one. I even sent a terrible demo submission when we were first getting started three years ago. I can’t put into words what it feels like to have the faith of the same institution that has put out so many of my favorite albums, but I am happy to call Bloodshot home and can’t wait to get to work on our next album."

Behind him, the band (bassist Mark Moncrieff, drummer Guyton Sanders, fiddler Travis Curry, electric guitarist Dustin Fleming (no relation), and multi-instrumentalist Cory Graves) kick up plenty of fast-moving dust, filling the songs with train beats, gang vocals, blasts of brass, and bursts of guitar. Vandoliers' sound is truly a tour of the many subgenres that originated in the Lone Star State, from outlaw country to Texas swing, electric blues, and even Tejano. At the same time, it’s a twist on those familiar sounds, delivered with a wink of the eye and a bang of the head. (As the Dallas Observer amusingly asserted, it's "as if Calexico and Dropkick Murphys got together for a fiesta.") It's twang and tattoos, grit and guitars, honky-tonk and horns, Tejano and Telecasters. It's Vandoliers.

Vandoliers' first two albums Ameri-Kinda (2016) and The Native (2017) were released on State Fair Records. The band has toured with such country and rock-n-roll stalwarts as Marty Stuart, Lee Ann Womack, Old 97's, and Reverend Horton Heat.

And no, we don't know where Joshua's "terrible demo" is.

Artist Website

Recommended if You Like:

Jason & the Scorchers

Calexico

Old 97's

Social Distortion

Dropkick Murphys

Texas Tornados

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