Gangstagrass at the Adler Theatre -- September 12.
Friday, September 12, 7 p.m.
Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA
Touring in support of their 2024 album The Blackest Thing on the Menu that No Depression said "sounds like speeding aimlessly down country roads in a rusted old hatchback, windows down, cranking burned CDs through blown speakers," the bluegrass/hip-hop ensemble Gangstagrass brings their tour to Davenport's Adler Theatre on September 12, No Depression adding that the band delivers "a daring blend of innovative modern swagger and classic Americana cool which dares listeners not to come along for the ride."
Originating in New York in 2006, Gangstagrass is founded and led by the Brooklyn-based (and single-named) producer, guitarist, and vocalist Rench, who spent the early 2000s making beats for local rappers and hosting country-music nights in popular NYC venues. In 2007, as he has explained, Rench was listening to the 1970s recordings of Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, and couldn't help imagining what classic bluegrass would sound like with rap vocals and beats. The result was the genre-demolishing Ranch Presents: Gangstagrass that he put up for free download, eventually creating intense underground buzz.
Gangstagrass started to see its music reaching a wide audience when the band's song “Long Hard Times to Come,” largely inspired by Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Things Goin' On,” was selected to be the opening theme song of the acclaimed FX drama Justified in early 2010. That July, Gangstagrass producer Rench and rapper T.O.N.E.Z were nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music, and author Elmore Leonard, whose writings were the basis for the show, stated, “Rench and his friends have done nothing short of creating a new form of music. Gangstagrass takes two types of music that are opposites and mixes them together brilliantly in a way that is natural and enjoyable.” Over the last decade, Gangstagrass released a quintet of additional albums: 2010's Lightning on the Strings, Thunder on the Mic; 2012's Rappalachia; 2014's Broken Hearts & Stolen Money; 2015's American Music; and 2019's Pocket Full of Fire: Gangstagrass Live, which inspired Americana Highways to rave, “Bluegrass and hip-hop are an unlikely combination, but this album is the perfect blend of those two great styles of music.”
A year after releasing 2020's No Time for Enemies, the band auditioned for a place on the 16th season of America's Got Talent, receiving four yeses from the judges – Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara, Heidi Klum, and Howie Mandel – and an enthusiastic response from host Terry Crews on the way to becoming quarter-finalists. Gangstagrass then followed this success with 2022's Sugarplums & Whiskey: A Gangstagrass Holiday Album and the current The Blackest Thing on the Menu, a recording that Relix repdicted "should continue their winning streak,"
Gangstagrass brings their tour to Davenport on September 12, admission to the 7 p.m. concert starts at $18, and tickets are available by calling (800)745-3000 and visiting DavenportLive.com/the-adler-theatre.
