Wichita Stallions are turning heads by coming up with a fresh, new sound,
incorporating different styles in the country music bastion of Nashville, TN.
Their songs and live show belie their youth and relatively short time together,
and are winning new fans around the country.
Take a pinch of a John Mayer, a liberal teaspoon of intelligent UK rock of a U2,
Muse or Radiohead, a handful of accessible pop of a Maroon 5, along with a sprinkle of the groove of a Jack Johnson, and you may come close to creating a sound like the Wichita Stallions. Needless to say, Nashville has never heard anything quite like this, and now the buzz is spreading quickly from there.
In the year since the Wichita Stallions have been playing, they have been
performing in the Nashville area, while making inroads to Georgia, Alabama,
Kentucky and Mississippi, and already getting crowds, buzz and industry talking. In Nashville, while playing 3rd and Lindley, Exit/In, and 12th and Porter, amongst other fine Nashville live venues, they have developed a dedicated following, crossing all ages, tastes, and styles.
Austin Kelly and Justin Skelly formed the Stallions in the spring of 2003.
Originally playing as a duo, the two quickly wanted to expand. To capture the
sound they heard in their collective heads, they recruited some of their high
school buddies, Andrew Robinson and Travis Vignon to be their John Paul Jones and John Bonham rhythm section duo, as well as cherry-picking Justin Hill, who had been playing keyboards for a number of local Nashville bands. After befriending Gavin DeGraw upon one of Gavin’s initial visits to Nashville, they convinced all their friends to get in a van, go up to New York City, and open some shows for Gavin. This experience, and the reception they received, bonded them and convinced them that they had something special and unique, something people wanted to hear and live with. The project became a band, and has grown exponentially ever since.
Since then they have been honing their craft, writing songs, prefecting their
already electrifying live shows, building their rapidly expanding fan base, and
taking the capacity houses they play to now in Nashville to new states and
markets. In the interim, the band is currently in the studio recording their
debut release, due out by January 2005, and look forward to spreading the Wichita Stallions gospel around this globe.
Nashville Rage (January 2004)
"New pop-rock combo Wichita Stallions, whose name is misleading, but whose
talent is already making the young band industry darlings even though they have only played a handful of gigs."
The Tennessean (June 2004)
"This seems to be the week for blue-eyed soul pop, what with the whole John
Mayer invasion taking place, so if you are looking to slowly work your way into it, give the Wichita Stallions a try."
Nashville Rage (November 2004)
"The Stallions are a very young and seriously talented group of guys who connect accessible blue-eyed soul that sounds undeniably contemporary, sharing the same pop and sheen of John Mayer and Maroon 5."
