There’s much to be admired in any act of longevity. When longevity comes in the humble pursuit of happiness in a volatile industry known to lift up one buzzed-about, celebrated act after another – before deriding it and calling it a sellout as it’s chewed up and spit out – to achieve longevity is absolute cause for celebration. Such volatility is the unforgiving nature of the music industry over the course of any given month, let alone each of the dozen months in a given year for a span of more than sixteen years.
Sixteen-plus years: That’s how long it has been since the perpetually under-the-radar, but intensely adored, rock and roll engine that is Red Wanting Blue formed in Athens, Ohio. Red Wanting Blue certainly aren’t the first band to plug-in and blast away night after night with wheels ceaselessly spinning from town to town in nondescript clubs, bars and rooms for years on end to cultivate a devoted following, but they surely are one worth championing.
Singer-songwriter Scott Terry, Mark McCullough (bass, vocals), Greg Rahm (keys, guitars, organ, vocals) Eric Hall Jr. (guitars, lap steel, mandolin, banjo, vocals) and Dean Anshutz (drums, percussion, glockenspiel) do, in fact, have a devoted following, to say the least. From college town to college town throughout the Midwest, the perseverant Ohio rockers laid a foundation for what would become a groundswell of support that has solidified not just a worthwhile career or a successful band, but an entire lifestyle bigger than themselves that is built on faith, paid back with interest in loyalty, and dripping with pride.
That’s not to say there haven’t been considerable setbacks in the journey; odds are Terry and his bandmates can vouch that the only journeys worth taking are the ones with roadblocks, detours, breakdowns and U-turns. They’ve survived lineup shake-ups (an irreconcilable rift between Terry and original RWB guitarist and collaborator Brian Epp was a turning point), a seemingly endless string of albums without label interest, the ubiquitous mental and physical toll of relentless touring, and sixteen-plus years of evaporating industry trends that could (and have) filled entire tomes – not to mention the explosion of internet culture, the digital age, Napster, iTunes, the rise of the blogosphere and anything else that has registered as even a speck of a drip in the turbulent waters of millennial and post-millennial pop-rock music. Hell, read enough music features these days, and you’ll be resigned to ignorance or outright denial if you believe guitars and and rock n’roll music as a whole weren’t stamped with a non-negotiable death certificate years ago.
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