Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band: Live in Tolono, IL (where?)
Keeping up this grueling schedule of a post per month is exhausting. So, too, is making an iPhone recording sound kinda acceptable. I've had this recording languishing on my hard drive since November...
Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band are a country rock group from Jeffersonville, IN. One of the few modern acts I like, mostly thanx to a songwriter carrying the torch of David Berman et. al. Hyper-literate songwriting, lots of wordplay fun, and he knows how to assemble a talented band.
This crummy recording I made when seeing them at the last stop of their Fall 2025 tour, Tolono, IL—A town that basically consists of a stoplight, yet somehow has a neat venue (The Loose Cobra). I wedged myself between blinding digital slot machines and middle-aged, bespectacled geeks talking about tracking their forthcoming LPs, propped my phone up atop a change machine, and captured a semi-serviceable MONO recording. The PA was kinda underpowered and the room was small, so vocals sometimes get lost... but the feeling is there.
I can't embed stuff; You can find the boot by clicking.
I could go on and on about how great the music is, hypothesize about why this band isn't bigger (probably cuz they aren't paying bot farms to talk them up on social media), yada yada yada... but I won't. It speaks for itself.
I hope to put out additional bootleg recordings as I get them. I have an okay-ish audience tape of a 1992 John Prine show my Uncle Jack made (tho it was recorded over a Creedence LP and the audio bleeds thru about half the songs!) that has never been online... I suppose that's next.