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Winding roads, towering trees, babbling creeks and majestic valleys can describe countless small towns across America, and 49 Winchester’s Appalachian hometown is no exception.
The soulful country group — made up of lead singer/guitarist Isaac Gibson, bassist Chase Chafin, keyboardist Tim Hall, drummer Justin Louthian, lead guitarist Brandon “Bus” Shelton and pedal-steel player Noah Patrick — hail from Russell County, Virginia. 49 Winchester’s music often blends elements of rock, soul, country and other genres as they pen unique music that resonates with others while including personal ties to their hometown. The band formed formed eight years, then “a rag tag bunch of neighborhood teenagers,” ago on Winchester Street, located in a small mountain town of Castlewood, Virginia, which has a population of just over 2,000, reads 49 Winchester’s bio.
“I’m a writer that’s always been big on where he’s from,” Gibson said. “The place we’re from’s a big part of who we are. We’re a bunch of hillbilly kids from central Appalachia that came up with very little, and our songs are just little snapshots and vignettes from our lives. That’s always kind of the way I’ve written, is just try to write the truth and try to write my own story, and I think people sort of latched onto it over the years.”
49 Winchester recently spoke with iHeartCountry on a Zoom call from an event at Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. in Tullahoma, Tennessee, where they performed and raised a glass. The set for an intimate crowd included “Everlasting Lover,” “Last Call” and “Russell County Line,” an anthem that nods to 49 Winchester’s Virginia hometown while still giving listeners a “‘longing for home’ feeling.” It’s a feeling that the band could relate to as they took in the scenic views on the way to the Tullahoma distillery.
“That’s the reason we do it, and that’s what keeps the fire going in me, is just that response,” Gibson said of connecting with the crowd during live performances. “It really doesn’t matter if it’s 25 people or 25,000 people. It’s still a performance and you still gotta go give it everything you got... Settings like this are things we don’t really get to do a whole lot anymore, to be in a really intimate space with people where they’re close to the stage, talking distance from each other, so it was a lot of fun.”
49 Winchester is gearing up for performances all over the world, playing at festivals nationwide over the summer, supporting other artists throughout the summer, joining Luke Combs’ massive world tour dates in Europe and returning to the U.S. for fall headlining dates. After that, the group will get to work on their next record, aiming to release it next year.
“I’m sitting on about an album’s worth of songs,” Gibson said. “We’re just waiting for the time, the break in the touring schedule to get in and hunker down and release some, which is not really something that’s part of our process usually. We’re always the guys that just start hashing stuff out live on stage…but it’ll be nice, this year, we’ve got some time (for) dedicated rehearsal time (and figure out) what we really want the record to sound like, and kind of sink our claws into it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.
“We’ve never really tried to fit into a box,” he continued. “We don’t particularly care if you label us ‘this’ or ‘that.’ We just (aim) to make the music that makes us happy, that people can feed off of when we’re doing it live. That’s where our music really lives, is in the live show and touring. That’s what we love. That’s what our passion is.”