The last date of neo-folk/dark-folk lyricist, banjoist and guitarist, Amigo the Devil’s Yours Until the Tour is Over, at Madison, Nashville, TN bowling/rock venue, Eastside Bowl, December 8, 2024, sustained a little longer than usual, to an extent that’s how long the initial, mulling-over of Amigo’s opening act, TK & The Holy Know-Nothing’s lead guitarist, Jimmy Russell, of what-the-fck-ever-that-guy-is-doing-up-there fame -it’s what took the audience members’ minds three months to process, post-seeing him. 

There’s a Robbie Robertson/Rick Danko mix within a blue Richard Petty-esque jump suit, seemingly fresh-out-of-the-fiery-stockcar/road-hard and rail-thin, and lost in an apropos’d cowboy hat character stunting a focused carnie gaze while setting up operations, on stage, that night, for a well-travelled Portland/Austin/Nashville sound. It’s too soon to realize the lead guitarist is a ringer for this honky-tonk quartet, across the country.

Referencing “Feel the Flow: Neo Soul and Jazz Hip Hop Grooves’ YouTube station/channel, 3/5/25, ~3:07 pm, popping up serendipitously “in the algorithm,” a simplistically structured jazz trio groove -midtempo snare with smooth, hi-hat’s <chit> percussion, 4/4 time/whole note bass, and with a lead guitar riffing fillers between the bass notes, as they play along. The artist for this example remains unknown. The Feel the Flow channel keeps that type of musical structure, [much like library music,] flowing to hinder groove.

Remaining within the time between those bass notes /the time it takes for the bass to hit the next note in the trio’s four note groove, the lead guitarist fills that time/space with as many notes as he can/whatever sounds good, from the bassist’s root notes (every on of his four notes), that note can be the start of an accompanying scale to fill in tiny melodies with the guitar. This ability comes from a mix between recognizing the root note, years of practicing scales (musical vocabulary), and then, [reliance on] muscle memory (from practicing your scales), to fill in riffs for whatever genre of music/song is being played.

A good guitarist (or, pianist, since they’ve the notes all in a line, in front of them) can get listener’s/audience’s emotions going, with soul, after muscle memory of what their supposed to be doing takes effect after years of practice, and the instrumentalist can focus on other stuff, like smoking a cigarette while driving a stick shift.

Speaking through their instruments, these sick riffs/fillers become an unstoppable combination/socio-mixture that creates such a skill-heavy existence from a meat sack, on stage, in front of the audience, who forms the words, himself, through his own [Walking] V -The Best Guitarist in Nashville, right now, lives in Oregon.

Jimmy. Fckn. Russell.

Folk and Proper caught up with filler-ringer/absolutely mind melting, riff student-of-the-world, [guitarist] Jimmy Russell, after solid, Portland-based, honky-tonk/country & western quartet (plus Jimmy Russell), TK & The Holy Know-Nothings played a show at Madison, Nashville’s Eastside Bowl, December 8, 2024; hanging out/standing out in The Low Volume Lounge as everyone was filing out of the headlining Amigo the Devil show…

There’s a carnie-gaze into the circus camaraderie he’s used to. It’s from a glance that’s seen many outcomes of hanging outside of shows, afterwards.

Jimmy Russell interview (recording, Eastside Bowl 12): 

F&P: Jimmy [fckn] Russell… 

TK & The Holy Know-Nothings guitarist, Jimmy Russell: Yeah, how you doin’, bubs?… 

Someone passing by us: Oh, dude. That was fckn’ sick, dude. 

Jimmy Russell, to passers by (JR): Thank you, guys… 

another Passer-by: I love the outfit, by the way. 

[The Beatles, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lovely Hearts Club Band,” begins to play over loudspeakers at Eastside Bowl’s Low Volume Bar/opening riffs…” 

JR: Aw, thanks, man. I miss… 

–Another, another passer by: You guys killed it, man. Thank you 

JR: Aw, thank you.  

Passer by girl: Great job on guitar… 

JR: Aw, Thank you, again… 

F&P: You make rock icons, in their proudest moments of their careers [on stage] -you make them look amateur, like…. 

JR, finishing talking to the guests, “thank you. Thank you,” then to F&P: Who said that? 

F&P: I said it. 

JR: I did… I did a fckn’ Ted Talk in front of twenty thousand people. I was hired by the Jimi Hendrix family to be Jimi Hendrix. And that was like… 

F&P: Wait. What?  

JR: Yeah. 

F&P: For, like, the Andre 3000 movie, this last one we saw? 

JR: No. No, no. Just like, you’re doing TED Talks. I [played] a TED Talk. 

[…] JR: I was hired by the Hendrix family, and it scared the sh- (-Jimmy Russell: -You’ll actually have to look up Tyrone Hendrix, because my names not on it…) 

JR: …But, it scared the sht out of me. I got there at, and I was like…  

Another audience passer by lady, compliments: “Excellent show. Excellent show.” 

“Thank you,” Jimmy Russell turns. 

JR, back to F&P: …I got there, and I was like -I didn’t make a mistake. Because I respect the music so much, I was like, ‘if I fck up the music, that’s it for me.’ But, it went well.  

[And] I put out my own solo record this year with, like, my wrecking crew. I’ve got a lot of connections in the industry… 

F&P: Where you from? You said Portland, Oregon? 

JR: Yeah, Portland. I spent… 

F&P: Okay. Portland. 

–Passer by quickly: You’re awesome! 

[over the PA, in the bar: “you’re such a lovely audience we’d like to take you home with us/we’d love to take you home…”] 

JR: “Thank you,” back to F&P: I’ve recorded with Deer Tick, and I’ve recorded for ten years straight […] ten-dozen years [doing math in head], then fourteen years touring –excuse me if I’m off- so now, I’m back over again [in Nashville] with these guys because I respect [TK Honeywell & The Holy Know-Nothings vocalist,] Taylor [Kingman] so much… 

F&P: Dude, thank you for showing up… 

JR: But, uh… 

F&P: You’re doing some good-ass work, and I don’t see sht like this/you around Nashville… for a while. 

JR: ‘Preciate it. ‘Preciate it, very much, man… Well, I’m happy because they said the guitars second place… You know, it’s good to hear that. 

F&P: Wait, say that again? 

JR: They say the guitar is second place in Nashville, y’know.  

F&P: -Guitarists like you don’t do what you do here tonight, and not in a while.  

JR: Right. Right. 

F&P: Your fillers and lines, and everything, which you’re jumping back and forth, in-between… 

JR: Thank you, man. Thank you. I know all the vocabulary, but that’s just how I like to play… 

[Low Volume Lounge PA: “Picture yourself on a boat in a river with Marmalade Dreams, and Tangerine skies,” as the nfollowing track from The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” starts, over the overhead speaker].   

F&P: It’s a beautiful thing. It’s all. It’s all… Yeah. Lemme check out that TED Talk.. 

JR: And then another thing, my band, The Quick & Easy Boys, put out a metal EP, just fckn crushing. We were on a bunch of mushrooms and tequila, and we ran out of songs, and so we just made it up, and it’s wonderful.  

JR, to audience passer-by: “How you doing, man?” 

Audience passer-by: Good. How’s it going? 

JR: Good. 

Audience member (AM): Saw you guys in Seattle… 

JR: Oh, awesome. 

AM: –twice- 

JR: Awesome. 

AM: …earlier in the tour, and then also back when you filled in a spot for the people that dropped out, this last tour… (2024 touring w/ Amigo started 9/13/24. The Seattle show referred to would’ve been two weeks earlier at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Music Festival 24. The previous year’s touring was the end of January 2023, with band, Fruition, then just TK & The Holy Know-Nothings through the beginning of Oct. 2023 before picking back up with Bumbershoot 2024).

JR: Right.  

AM: in Seattle… 

JR: So, I –Oh, I don’t think I was on the first one, baby. 

AM: Were you not? Ahhh. 

 JR: No. But if I am…. 

AM: …Great fckn shows. 

JR: Yeah. Thank you. 

AM: Hell Yeah. 

JR, to F&P: I love Taylor so much. Great fckn songwriter… 

F&P, to JR: What’s the name of the metal album? 

JR: Scary Things 

A following passer by/audience lady, leaving: -So much fun to watch… 

JR: Aw, Thank you so much… 

–Passer by lady, to F&P and JR: …So much fun to watch. 

F&P, to JR, as more people are coming up: “Thank you for talking with me…” 

Jimmy Russell: “Yeah, yeah –Scary Things. The Quick & Easy Boys…” 

“The Quick & Easy Boys… Scary Things,” F&P repeats back. 

F&P, walking off: “That’s what I’m talkin’ about.” 

-At the same moment, the next passer-by, audience woman: “May I? …with you guys?” as F&P repeats back to Russell, “Scary Things. The Quick & Easy Boys…” trying to hastily walk off. Jimmy Russell’s arm starts to go around me, saying to the audience lady, taking a picture, now: “Yeah, of course. Please.” 

Audience lady, “You two…” as F&P was walking off: “…Really??” she says… 

F&P, realizing what’s happening: “Wait? What?! I’m not a member of the band,” laughing, and especially at a phase in life there was a beautifully flowing, every-character-in-Tombstone mustache, resembling TK & The Holy Know-Nothings’ vocalist/box guitarist, Taylor Kingman’s mustache [the TK], from a distance… 

Jimmy Russell, already into the photo-op: “You gonna jump in?” 

Audience lady: “Oh, gad…” 

Jimmy Russell holds on. 

F&P’s Phone goes in pocket (muffled audio), as Jimmy Russell and F&P take a picture as Jimmy Russell and Taylor Kingman, for an audience member’s possible social media post. -“You have a lot of…” audience lady picture taker said. 

interrupting walker by: “You want me to do that for you? And I also have a question…” -her friend. 

[Eastside Bowl’s Low Volume Lounge PA/overhead speakers: “Everyone’s smiles as you drift past the flowers that grow so incredibly high…” -Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, over the PA…] 

JR: Yes? 

Picture taking friend: Where’s [Ostrich?] [Sausage?]  

JR: Oh, it’s right over there, on stage…. 

Picture-taking friend: It is over there? 

JR: Yeah. Yeah, Taylor’s up there. 

Friend: I haven’t done that much yet. Hold on, setting my stuff here… (crowd chatter and laughs). 

Another audience lady, laughing, to JR: I Love your fckn hat, dude.  

JR: It’s so comfortable. Why not? 

Ladies, “Cheers! 

Jimmy Russell: “Well, I figured everyone else is dressing like cowboys, so I might as well become one.” 

Audience lady: Fck yeah, you’re like… 

[…] JR: It was actually Freddie King…  

Lady: Freddie King? 

JR: Yeah. 

–Audience chatter/ladies still taking a few pictures. All of this is happening as Jimmy Russell has his arm around the newspaper. 

Audience lady: Gotta get the right lighting, guys… 

[…] JR: You got Tiny, tiny pictures. Oh yeah. Oh, You got it now. You got it now. 

JR: Here (repositioning F&P for the next picture) (ladies laughing). 

[…] Next, another audience guy (N.a.a.g.b.t), behind them: You rock! You’re badass! 

[JR: Yeah, man] 

N.a.a.g.b.t: So fkcn awesome. Hell yeah. 

Next audience ladies, directed to a small crowd that’s gathered: …Same line, right? 

(previous) audience ladies, taking the pics: Thank you!!! 

F&P mumbles something about Leon Redbone [I think trying to talk about his picking style, or talking about Lightning Luke, or something, but crowd chatter took over]… 

JR, to crowding folks: Thank you guys very much. 

F&P: Let me get my bearings straight with you, and I’ll try to contact you later, if that’s all right. 

JR: Yeah, yeah. Please do. Please do. I’d love that, very much. 

F&P: Thank you, sir. Solid show. Solid show.  

JR: -You want my #? 

(More folks coming around, “Really enjoyed you guys,” -“Thank you, bud…”; “Woo-woop!” -“Thanks, bud…”) 

F&P: I’m recording, right now, if you just want to say it into it. 

JR: Yeah, yeah. That’s fine. -its whudever. 

[…]

F&P, to Russell: -My name is Bryce Harmon. I run a newspaper out of Murfreesboro called Folk & Proper. 

JR: Wonderful. That’s great. 

F&P: I’ll hit you up when I get this number down, and shoot you a text, or something.  

JR: I have to say, I appreciate you already. I already know you’re a good journalist because I went to school to be a journalist, and then, y’know, kept on the music track, but … 

F&P: That shts hard, man. Both of them. 

“Music journalists are the dregs of journalism, and journalism is pretty shitty to begin with,” Russell said. 

F&P: I call it low hanging fruit, but it’s really… so, emotionally fulfilling. 

JR: There’s a couple people I’ve met throughout the country, like this guy, Jake Feinberg, who, like -he just knows how –knows the culture, and he does it/doing it right… and, God Bless, that you’re out there doing it… 

***F&P: Scene coverage is really cool in the fact/serendipity that you just did a metal album –it’s kind of coincidental because we have a good metal on top of it. 

JR: Oh, yeah. Good 

F&P: …So, that ties in
-(https://folkandproper.news/2025/02/27/the-murfreesboro-local-punk-metal-scene-pt-1/). 

JR, about Scary Things: And it’s crazy because …We weren’t planning on it, we were high on mushrooms, and we had the world’s most famous hip-hop drummer with us…  

F&P: D’jew have Questlove, or something? 

JR: His names Carlin White. He’s J. Cole’s drummer. He also drums with John Legend, and those mtherfckrs, like… 

F&P, abruptly, as the mob surged on: -Thanks for talking with me… 

JR: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. 

Audience passer-by: There’s a lot of people around… 

F&P, walking away, and by a table next to us, Mary Wrather, a seemingly stray Murfreesboroan, is sitting, alone. “Do you have a ride home?” asks F&P. She says “yes,” to which F&P said, “Be safe🫵🤘”. 

F&P, to the universe: All right. Jimmy Russell. The best Guitarist in Nashville […] came to us from Oregon. 

Check where he’ll be the following week, online. It could be doing a benefit show over on the west coast, and videos on him with his little boy; a very keen, and wise feel eye for recognizing deep seeded issues within human psyche and their accompanying instagram reels (@yeahbud) -as well as/also, seemingly strewn together ideas for a start-up of the next tour, or in-between tour work using remnants and opportunity for the previous tour. With his plethora, soul, and know-how, it’d be silly not adapt the way Russell has, as best can. Those talents need to be in front of people that enjoy it to make that life, and he’s figured out the national way of doing it.

Jimmy Russell’s 2024 solo album, —— , released out of ——- records, [date], can be found at…

The Quick & Easy Boys’ entire catalouge can be found at their bandcamp, https://thequickandeasyboys.bandcamp.com/music. Jimmy Russell merch can be found here, as well.

TK & The Holy Know-Nothings latest, , can be found at Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and Pandora -as well as their bandcamp, https://tkandtheholyknownothings.bandcamp.com/

Seattle-area coverage for the Hendrix family TED Talk, at the time, out of KGW, can be found at https://www.kgw.com/article/features/producers-picks/tedxportland-jimi-hendrix-family-member-tribute/283-06312d62-64fa-401f-b551-0cb2b61feae2.

Amigo the Devil’s next major 2025 area appearance will be in Cookeville, TN, at the Muddy Roots Music Festival, August 29-31, 2025. Full information can be at muddyroots.com (Maybe all of these guys will be there, now, as Galaz partied on the other side of the curtain, that Dec. 8/last week of Amigo’s 2024 Yours Until the Wars Over Tour🤘). Amigo the Devil’s latest, Yours Until the War is Over is available across the icons at Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and Pandora.

For any songs not found online outside of their bandcamp catalogue, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings’ latest release, The Incredible Heat Machine, was released October 15, 2021. Newer songs played live within their last three and a half years may not be under official title/may be in working title, or the lyrics for a previously released song have been adjusted over the course.

Seemingly, and to the effect of, Socio-journalism legitimizes personal influences as the hook.