[[Alt. boys choir is what the men are doing in Nashville, right now: a rarity-in-scene outside of 70’s rock bands and actual gospel of chamber orchestras -more specifically, the dude harmony of rock bands that’s as American as the phrases, “whiplash,” or “by-the-wayside.”
When one thinks of a bunch of dudes up on stage singing together, it’s few and far between rememberances of anything outside of the rock concert you saw, yesterday, and don’t really think of guys harmonizing together in a band outside of The Band, or your Nitty Grittys, or your Little Feats.
Through the avenue of Richie, however, who is a lead singer, and with a band named after himself, Alt. Boys Choir is discoverable within the 2020’s, in the metropolitan area.
Yeah. Alt. boys choir is what you can do in a band: Harmony.
You don’t have to inherit your dad’s vocality, but it’s cyclical.
And, On the cusp of “20’s warehouse disco” over-lapping into another newly discoverable Nashville 20’s niche, “Boys Alt. Choir,” is taking hold.
Justin & The Cosmics open for Nashville’s Richie Kirkpatrick with his band, Richie (cent sign for the “c” in Richie) at Gallatin Ave’s Soft Junk venue (located at 919) /for a cassette release party, November 14, 2024.
Another example: opener band
another expample (Dee Oh Gee, best The End
Dee Oh Gee announced their 2026 summer album release to F&P, that night, half of them going to Sweden, this summer, DeeOhGee (@deeohgee__) • Instagram photos and videos
another example (Milton with Little Feat?)
Ultimately, this picks up after The Hard Quartet playing The Brooklyn Bowl as virtuoso punks, lime-lighting Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelley forming with Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement, and the Silver Jews), Matt Sweeney (Skunk, Chavez) and Jim White (The Dirty Three, and as a session drummer, A LOT of good albums) to emphasize the soft punkness and soft junkness not only using the Gallatin Pk. venue as a practice space, with the garage doors open, passing a bass around [sans White], understanding from their pasts that the on who holds the bass, holds the crowd, but in a lazy harmony, they soar alt. rock ways of 90’s men’s rock bands in live settings.
And because they’re part of alt. rock on the 90’s, where another generation fore’d this particular, present one, deep voiced dudes make the namesake due to the reemergence. And then another 20 years before them, you’ve got your The Bands, and Nitty Gritty’s, and Little Feat, roughly, but absolutely heavenly alt. harmony outside of the tightness and discipline of vocality’s in the more successful Temptations, Commodores, and so forth, whom harmonize spot-on every time as well-trained and disciplined men, in their own right.
And [fckn] Soft Junk. Don’t even get me started. It’s just a cool place, and and to the extent when Pavement comes into town [er, one half of Pavement for The Hard Quartet show, 3/31/25?, and the other for Pavements, their doc showing at the Belcourt theatre, ??/??/??. They either practice or party there, and its hard to know the difference coming up with a bunch of crazy Legendary Shack Shakers-esque blues, but out of Staunton, VA [Unmastered Masters].
Folk & Proper assistant reporter, William Womack, texted photos and vids from The Weird Sister’s same-evening, Eastside Bowl concert as I was recording Richie at Soft Junk, which places 20’s alt disco, Alt. Boys Choir, and Girl Blues, running Nashville market 38 notices/observations simultaneously happening over the course of the post-pandemic 20’s in America.
Noticeable is a slow and gradual formation of the boys alt. choir pattern, but it’s definitely noticeable in Dee Oh Gee, whom played with Richie, 2/1/25. Those guys epitomize, counter-melody harmonizing in not only style, but a loose blues rock coincidentally shedding light that Alt. Boys Choir is generational, and with the latest reemergence of it within Nashville.
Richie’s Cassette Release party, Silver and Gold, 11/15/24:
Into the Nashville abyss, Richie harkens back to following Ghostfinger in Murfreesboro during the twenty-aughts, after being a fan of Ghostfinger in college, and even realizing, back then, the potential in the vocal cords of Richie show openers, as well as other sets seen around town at the time,
comes Indie Live 615 2025, a seeming alt. rock and area-feature rival / sister festival to Nashville’s AmericanaFest, which brought to light a city that can behave as one enormous venue any given night, given the organizations available (it’s quite a feat to get tickets hidden in a downtown Hyatt for a Basement East show that’s one of seventeen or eighteen that day across the downtown Nashville area, flexing the capabilities of Music City.
From The Murfreesboro Pulse, May 4, 2016’s, “Believe the Legend: Ghostfinger’s Reunion Show Set for May 13”:
Depending on one either being an optimist or a pessimist, a solid conclusion to a recently popularized argument pertaining to nostalgia is nostalgia can ultimately lead one to the thought “It’s nice to be alive.”
It’s been a decade from the heavy idea phase—presumably made in a fit of whatever vocalist/guitarist Richie Kirkpatrick did to help him think while he was living in Murfreesboro—that turned into a well-remembered reality that was, and is now again, area alt.country/rawk quartet Ghostfinger, reuniting for the first time since disbanding, with opening acts Murfreesboro-founded peer How I Became the Bomb and Nashville favorite Lone Official on Friday, May 13, at 9 p.m. at Nashville’s Exit/In.
With the original Ghostfinger lineup consisting of Richie Kirkpatrick on lead vocals and guitar, Matt Rowland on keys, Van Campbell on drums and Todd Beene on guitar and pedal steel, the night should remind some folks of past house parties on Greenland Drive, the surprisingly accessible-at-the-time Kirkpatrick on an Eaton Street porch around sunrise rambling about Guy James Road, or their rich upstairs live sets at the former Murfreesboro Square printing/record shop Grand Palace. But be it then or now, there’s going to be old wet panties flying every which way.
During their Murfreesboro beginnings, Kirkpatrick, Rowland and Campbell released Ghostfinger’s debut album, These Colors Run, in 2005. That album was, and is, chock-full of lyrically comedic surprise punches and drunken head-scratch insights while. Musically, a couple of Wright Music Hall jazz students strategically and creatively accompanied a madman’s rock guitar ideas. The gist of Ghostfinger’s first album is pretty much “We’re gonna fuckin’ rock your pants off right now while we gently play with your hair and if you trust us, we’re not afraid and you’ll like it.” Their individual, yet evened-out stage charisma and charm wholly lined up with that sentiment, too, so if a then-Ghostfinger fan was asked about all that in passing, they would pretty much only say, “Man, it is what it is,” while softly nodding their heads yes while dazing off at the ground for a second for lack of anything better to respond with.
If romanticized, the proper culmination of Ghostfinger’s Murfreesboro presence—with the songs that make up These Colors Run and a few not used until their sophomore album, The Feeler, along with their well-played raucous of a stage show—is Kirkpatrick inevitably being charged with inciting a riot by Murfreesboro’s finest at a house show on Fairview Avenue. So, they can put that on their résumés.
Utilizing the locomotion created in Murfreesboro and honing in on their already solid alt.country rock sound, Ghostfinger toured the country a little before settling their act in Nashville to continue what they started on that bigger stagescape. That’s noticeable in the aforementioned follow up album, The Feeler, released in August of 2008 on Grand Palace Records, and stands as a perfect example of a band’s career growth while maintaining their sound. The Feeler is a proper consistency. It’s Ghostfinger’s heads breaching the clouds while their feet remain firmly planted. It’s a fine example of adapting to and building on the last half-decade’s worth of East Nashville rock like another upward-bound Murfreesboro-beginnings band, Those Darlins, did this last decade. It’s just plainly, simply, classically, and goofily Respectful with a capital R as the rating. And fans don’t complain about something so nice about a favorite band.
After the original lineup of Ghostfinger hiatus-ed all over the place in 2011, Kirkpatrick, along with Rowland, are enduring in East Nashville’s music scene these last five years by creating another flash-popularized Kirkpatrick project, RIcHIE, that became just as highly recognized, and not only all over Nashville, with billings alongside the likes of Protomen, Jeff the Brotherhood and Wolfmother. RIcHIE is giving Kirkpatrick and company the opportunity to stretch out beyond Nashvillian boundaries and dabble in some national attention as the band has played Bonnaroo and South by Southwest, toured a bit of Europe, and Kirkpatrick even got an appearance in on Late Night with David Letterman. Put that on a résumé.
Kirkpatrick isn’t the best at keeping a steady and current news feed of his shenanigans online, but information about his projects and the people involved can be found through his RIcHIE and Ghostfinger fan sites on Facebook.
Exit/In is located at 2208 Elliston Place in Nashville and tickets to the Ghostfinger/How I Became the Bomb/Lone Survivor show can be found online at ticketfly.com for a $10 general admission price.
These Colors Run and The Feeler can be found on ITunes, Amazon and ghostfinger.bandcamp.com; a worn-out copy of the early Ghostfinger preview burn CD can be found stuck forever in the CD player of one of Dean Freeland’s old cars.
It was later brought to our attention by 2010’s organizer [and shop-runner, at the time?], Quinton Thornton, there was a spontaneous Ghostfinger reunion the night before, or a couple nights before their Exit/In appearance, at the space beside UGO, on Broad and Church. It’s been a lot of things, as has that whole area, besides UGO standing strong as the only dependable Murfreesboro staple since, seemingly, the 80’s, turns over quickly. At the time of the publication, it was a restaurant with a stage in the middle of it, or a full-on venue, at which Dee and Sky-Hi picked up a few final shows.
[Believe the Legend: Ghostfinger’s Reunion Show Set for May 13 – The Murfreesboro Pulse].
The End, Feburary 1, 2025
“Oh, man, [“BEn I love you!” -audience member]. All right, we got Ben Garner, here, on the bass. Give it up. Joe MacMahon on guitar. Joe just produced this ablum, Silver and Gold, which just came out this November, and I’ve got cassettes for sale. You know what I mean? (crowd, apey). We got Jeff Elhiger, here, on the drums, and we’ve got a song about the best ride at the carnival,” Richie Kirkpatrick says.
“Gosh. My band, Ghostfinger, opened up for Boys II Men at this fair in Virginia Beach-kinda area, and it’s pretty special,” Richie continued.
“We showed up there early and we got to take some acid with carnies (crowd laughs), and ride the Gravitron. A few years later, I wrote this song about that.”
Opry Live 615, Nashville, Tn – 2/1/25 (Pink Spiders, Dee Oh Gee, and Richie).
DEE OH GEE
walking up, walking in, mind blown, “Viva La Rock n’ Roll! Viva La Rock n’ Roll! “I’m Doing Just Fine,” – 5:30, “My old friend Joe,” -14:40; 4th song, 14:40 – 19:51; 20:27 – 24:45Dr. Jones Murphy! Give it up one time [vid] ; 33:40, drummer vocals, just as good backing harmony from lead vocals/guitar, “Darkness Hound?” (great alt boys choir) – 36:50; 37:00 – -42:00; 42:49 – 47:00; 47:00 –
Following, not opening, encountering Dee Oh Gee was jaw dropping in their presentation of homespun KY, trio blues rock with counter melody-ing bass and guitar, just as much as the alt. boys choir-type harmony they instill. You can catch them after the shows at the bars and outside-the-clubs of our hearts for days after their performances.
24:43, [Still kinda janky in their in between song banter, but in good spirits, ] This sounds better. We’re playing some old songs, some new songs, some red songs, some blue songs, one songs is two songs, dog songs and cat songs… [guitar picks] Their lyrics are a little better, but aren’t too far off.
47:10 – 51:45, “Yeah, I’m Gone” ; 52:00 “Dont Give Up on Love,” -56:50; 57:00
“DeeOhGee isn’t just a band—it’s a high octane boots-on-the-ground celebration of everything loud, soulful, and brazenly real. A rowdy blend of rock ’n’ roll, bluesy swagger, and cosmic country charm, they bring a visceral energy that feels like slipping into your favorite worn-in boots after a wild night out. Think Waylon Jennings meets The Rolling Stones, jamming in a sweaty van barreling down the backroads of Americana. At their core, DeeOhGee is all about grit, fun, and unfiltered connection. Their live shows are sweaty, no-frills, and bursting with raw energy—no backing tracks, no pretense, just three musical brothers improvising and weaving stories on the fly, with a little help from their four-legged mascot, Darlin the dog.”
“DeeOhGee takes the golden threads of roots music and spins them into something fresh, fierce, and unapologetically their own. Their vibe is sharp-dressed swagger meets playful sincerity, blending tongue-in-cheek humor with a sound that moves seamlessly from 60s swinging London to psychedelic Appalachian grooves. Dylan Whitlow (vocals, bass, guitar), Zack Murphy (drums, percussion, vocals), and Matthew Paige (guitar, vocals, harmonica) form a powerhouse trio, each bringing their own unique energy to the mix. Together, they weave blues, rock, and country into a genre-defying sonic experience that pushes boundaries while staying true to their roots,” DeeOhGee
“Thanksy’allforbeinghere, we’re Dee Oh Gee!heeeeeeey […] one more time for [wild bear?] (crowd applause). One more time for Richie (crowd applause)! One more time for The Pink Spiders, yo (crowd cheers). One more time for the mother fuckin’ End. Give it up for THe End, right now (crowd, apey, “yeah yeahs!” some bruuuucee!’s). That’s right. Bruuuce! That’s right. That’s This is a magical place. We’re happy to be a part of it. We’re proud to be a part of it, yes. That’s right. THank you for having us. Wow,” Jesse says.
Dee Oh Gee was also invited back into the city for Fork’s Drum Closet’s re-opening under new management and transforming the back garage into a venue show, early 2026.
The following Richie train encounter would’ve been the discovery of Setter and under the radar, Husker Du-punk, OG mufr-lineup, Hamsterdam, seemingy out of nowhere, at Richie’s March 13, 2025, full lunar eclipse, Springwater Supper Club show, next to Centennial Park in Nashville, TN, that wound up Joe Blankenship telling me at a Rwake show the next night Richie (the band) opened up a mason jar of fun guys in the park to watch the eclipse, after the show, barely making it out the following evening. Talked to Protoman, that night, too.
Now ….Hamesterdam, Are You Mad At Me?, 4 Pulses
the rules that we make dictate the progression of the things that we’re regulating along the way, as generational observations mark “new beginnings.” It’s evolution.
Whtever’s been happening and progressing all along, it’s just a new generation stopping in to see how important or bad it’s gotten. Or, reporting modernity.
It’s kinda like investing. When you’re born, the rates are normal to you, but expensive for a/the person bory forty years ago, and into those prices. That’s [just] jumping in at modern buy-in rates and prices.
“Quixotic game of whack-a-mole,” Hamsterdam is a group comprised of Murfreesboroans setting a career in Nashville, and after 20 years [popping up as somewhat of a timely/aging supergroug
An absolutely, Mufreesboro OG quartet, comprised of Joe Blankenship, Chalie Zaillian, Tyler Coppage, and Bingham Barnes on the bass, Tyler Coppage on drums, Joe Blankenship on vox, Charlie Zaillian on the skins, Hamsterdam still visits us through their debut album, Are you mad at me? Through Glossary Song (sounding a vast,”Fck Murfreesboro”), as well as when Joe wants or has to visit his mom.
Fuck you-still here indie Murfreesboro-Nsahville powerpunk noise pop, Hamsterdam’s Are You Mad At Me? was released out of Nashville’s Studio B, August 2024.
Involved in their own vocalizations of alt boys choir, or the males of the cureent generations harmonizing as a unit onstage, noticeable around intimate live shows in Nashvile, TN over the course of the early 20’s [this is a steady example of culmination of that particular, seemingly Southern-based comfort and form of belting, onstage and as a unit]
“I hear everhting from Husker Du to the Groovy Ghoulis in this freshman release from senior musicians of the Murfreesboro/Nashvile scene. I aslo hear (and greatly appreciate) a lot of The Cycle vibes in Joe Blankenship’s vocals, for those of us who remember that mind blowing band of the early 2000’s. This is genuinely a great rock album. It wll find a place in my lisenting rotations for sure. (On a personal note, love you guys “BB, JB, TC” . Your collective bands have defined my adult life.) Favorite track: Maniacal,” says Bandcamp user, mammthsightsandsounds
Opening, there’s a Country Punks, Legendary Shack Shakers, explosive opener, Devil’s Hand (which becomes the norm), lyricizing …
90’s influences such as big sound, Soundtrack of Our Lives, Eagles of Death Metal, with a bit of jazz Mike’s alt. Boys choir that borderline into a 90’s influences and poingnant Gen X-trained sentiment [out of a millenial] to Roadhouse rocks when utilizing the jumbly alt. boys choir harmonics (loose, gruffy vocal harmonies) just a little off in precision, this album. That’s what makes alt. boys choir great. That and the participation by men, a group of people thought to be in an psychological epidemic/depressive, existential epidemic, as a whole, in this age and country. This is one of their good outlets, alt. boys choir, that this quartet harmonzes on an explive intro. Joe and Tyler on vox, looking back at shaking the Devil’s Hand.
Second song seems it comes out of a made-up bane like Pete and Pete’s neighborhood band, Polaris (sings the theme song), solely created for that seraies/fake town just for the show(s). The screaming and rasp plus the just-off, collective harmony and Grungy They Might Be Giants bass strums/lines make for a faster, post punk Nashville pop harmonizing with poigntancy of a screaing Gene Ween.
It’s a great album resorting back to your roots after being raised by Neutral Milk Hotel, for so long.
3rd song, another alt bys choir as if Cracker and Pavement got together for a practice at Soft Junk for the second drummer’s side project at The Ryman, that weekend, lyricizing mature angst in 90’s/00’s alt rock and pop punk fashion [with deep influences from both form’s niche and originals],
“Can’t Break My Heart,” gets the anher of some men old enough to make the referenes, now, in form that’s hommage-istic, yet still true to the situation. These guhs exercize discipline and deep cuts in, Are You Mad At Me?, debuting a microcosm of Nashville that’s been forming/noiceable in Nashville, TN, these early 20’s.
“Cutaway,” applies these characteristics to a low-fi, slightly So. Cal. popper with hi-string echoing effect and low-end fuzz to higher-register grunge it out -I guess that’s the description of an alt. rock band- making new with something that’d been tampered with twenty-to-thirty years ago.
“Downtown Sally,” a violent fuzz punker, seemingly single-mic’d harmonies, prizing “tweaking in the ally,” to forwarn some Sallies caught up in the allies.
“Most of these songs can reflect Ween rockers when they’re at their news”Round and Rund (Pelican),” exemplifies the oppier tunes you’d find on Ween albums. Excellent drum rolls as the other three bang out a Ramones-metal (Ramones, but Metal), when including the epic bridge. Migh’ve had to back up the walls of the proctice room for that bridge. Again, excellent alt. boys choir found outside of the churches and basements and warhouses of Nashville, TN.
Fantastic example of modernized, eccentric (and slightly intelligent) millennial interpretations by 20 year vereans of the Murfreesboro-Nashville transition/venue and house show scene.
“Treating [Hamsterdam] as a public health crisis, not a criminal problem,” says Kitteoff.
“Love to Give,” is that vein of disciplined homage, rather current status of a certain genre of music, the lyrics of this hard pop punker emote laden, not residual, angst, and instead of ‘pent up,’ fresh angst and strife, utilizing a way to vent formerly used .ofthe past/a way they used to vent as kids, but better as adults/a supergroup of kids, still caught up on the same sht, just professionally coping.
It’s a coping album.
“Glossary Song,” a reflection, modernly, stands an original acoustic (the “Fck Murfreesboro” song), from the heart, and a perfect expample of what millennial residents of this town have gone through within the Murfeeesboro-Nashville transitory era for which these thoughts were brought about/from. A reason why people drink is because they didn’t meet expectations, and the expectations involved in such a starry move (with all your friends) can make for some dissappointments when the realities of adult life, such as children, mortages, and keeping sane take over childhood. Thus adulthood. A mature, same-venting album, very well made. And a good mix of people to pull it off. The Glossary Song is a perect outlet and testament and sentiment to such a microcosm [mentality] that still has people singing about it twenty-thrity years later.
“ I hear everything from Hūsker Dü to the Groovy Ghoulies in this freshman release from senior musicians of the Murfreesboro/Nashville scene. I also hear (and greatly appreciate) a lot of The Cycle vibes in Joe Blankenship’s vocals, for those of us who remember that mind blowing band off the early 2000s.
This is genuinely a great rock album. It will find a place in my listening rotation for sure,” said bandcamp user, mammothsightsandsounds
(On a personal note, love you guys “BB, JB, TC” . Your collective bands have defined my adult life.) Favorite track: Maniacal,” he continued.
Natalie Kitroeff’s interview with Azed Amed can be found at
Again, Ultimately, this picks up after The Hard Quartet play Brooklyn Bowl, March 21, 2025. Those four, forming a super group out of [insta bumper] to emphsize the soft punk virtuosity of these gentlemen [passing a bass around [sans White], as well as] harmonizing in the lazily, alt. rock way of 90’s mens rock bands singing harmony.
The Hard Quartet, Brooklyn Bowl, 3/21/25
Wrapping up another long form notice, then tracking down the reasons for insanity -once listening to MJ Lenderman’s “She’s Leaving You,” outside in the truck after work, one night, when it first came out on 91.1 WNXP (back in 2023?), and trying to figure out the sound, I landed on Steve Malkmus’ -what-I-learned-through-Pavements (and outside of listening, as a kid), Steve Malkmus’ bratiness- plus an array of other influences, from Neil Young to Quiet Riot- that journey, which led me through the south and TX, like this one, that led me through the warehouses, bowls, and Electric Ave’s of Nashville, it’s pretty cool, the journey.
Videos of these recordings can be found at B.E.Harmon Youtube channel, specifically, Alt Boys Choir – YouTube. Thank you.
Folk & Proper’s instagram can be found at @folkandpropernews • Instagram photos and videos
A pethora of male group harmony can also be found at the annual, East Nashville concert, Last Waltz tribute show, put on by non-profit collective for Nashville musicians, Music Health Alliance, as a local fundraiser for the Ben Eyestone fund, found at The [East] Band, Live at The Basement East, 11/22/25 – Folk & Proper News, with videos located at The [East] Band, at The Basement East [folkandproper.news] – YouTube.
It’s like evolution to the tiniest step: Cycles / Generational. That’s how they found out we add 3 IQ pts, every generation, is trying to decipher/understand/demystify evolution, and thinking it down to the smallest steps, our day to days, then handling that accordingly, developing mentalities in order to do so. If done properly (not succumbing to Darwinism), we break our cycles, and getting a three pointer out of the deal.
This Boy’s Alt. Choir is kinda the flip-side of the coin, productive aspect of that concept.
Thank you.
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