Five years ago, these talented musicians came together in Nashville to form their own country band. (All are from different parts of the United States, with one from Gibraltar.) Since then, members of King Calaway have evolved as a tight-knit group of singers, songwriters, and instrumentalists, who’ve successfully created their own style and sound.
“There’s so much music out there, we wanted to stand out,” says Chad Jervis, co-lead singer and guitarist. “We each grew up playing in different bands, but all had this admiration for three-part harmony bands like the Eagles or Alabama, and we noticed that was kind of missing in country music now. We wanted to put our stamp on that, and kind of reintroduce it.”
They released their first album in 2019, and an EP in 2021. And along the way, they caught the attention of Zac Brown. Brown has helped mentor them, taken them on the road as an opening act for his 2023 From the Fire Tour, and produced seven of the songs on Tennessee’s Waiting.
“Zac has been so giving to us,” Jervis continues. “He’s had so much advice that’s been so incredibly useful. He struggled for years before finally becoming known as Zac Brown Band, and it’s been really inspiring for him to help an up-and-coming group like ours.”
There are 16 tracks on the new album, most of which have at least one member of King Calaway listed as co-writer.
“Some of these songs were written at the height of the pandemic,” says Simon Dumas, singer and guitarist, and the only member of the band from outside of the U.S. “A lot of them were written over Zoom. I was actually stuck in the UK writing with people here in the states. So, to hear these songs that literally came together over a computer screen, in their finished form on an album, is really rewarding. Putting our stamp on the album as songwriters was really important to us.”
And as they share songwriting duties, two of the band members also alternate as lead singers.
“Chad and I share lead vocals,” explains Dumas. “It’s kind of an interesting thing very inspired by Glenn Frey and Don Henley where different songs just suit different vocalists. We can lean into what Chad is really good at or what I’m really good at and because of that we can develop these different spaces.”
They welcomed other voices, too. There are collaborations with Zac Brown, GRAMMY-nominee Marcus King, and ACM winner Hailey Whitters.
“I’m really excited for people to hear the songs because some are a little bit out of the box,” notes Jervis. “’Heathen’ is one of them. We wrote that song just a day or two before going into the studio and we showed it to Zac. He loved it and wanted to cut it immediately.”
When they got in the studio, they began experimenting with it.
“It was like okay, let’s add some organ, let’s add some background singers,” says Jervis. “And then Zac randomly said, ‘Marcus King would sound incredible on this.’ We were like, yeah, absolutely! So, Marcus came in, and I can’t wait for people to hear the song!”
Not every song, however, is a King Calaway original, and country fans will recognize one of them immediately: “When I Call Your Name,” originally recorded by Vince Gill. The band admired both the song and the songwriters (it was written by Gill and Tim Dubois) and wanted to cover it.
“There was no way we were going to be able to recreate the original because that version is just magical, right?” notes Simon. “So, we thought let’s do a more stripped-down version. Caleb laid down the acoustic track and we had Paul Franklin, who actually played steel guitar on the original, come in and play on ours. Even Franklin said he didn’t want to do it the same way as the original, so he also put a different touch on it.”
Everyone was pleased with how it turned out.
“It was intimidating at first,” says Caleb Miller, lead guitarist, referring to the decision to even record the song to begin with, “but Vince heard it and loved it. It was cool to get that stamp of approval.”
All four members of King Calaway are proud of Tennessee’s Waiting. It’s a true reflection of how they’ve grown together personally, professionally, and musically over the past five years, as well as a reminder of what brought them together in the first place.
“I think for whatever reason, it got lost on us a little bit as to how much we just love jamming and playing music,” says Chris Deaton, the band’s drummer. “On this record, we wanted to dive into the live band sound and Zac Brown really helped us because he’s so good at that. He pushed us musically and we’re all so happy with the final product.”
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