Fast-paced, high-energy foot stompers. Ballads that'll make you cry. It's kind of like a rock band married old-fashioned bluegrass and had a little baby. And named it TopHouse.
TopHouse was created in 2015 by two Montana music majors, guitarist/songwriter Jesse Davis and violinist William Cook, before adding Joseph Larson (lead singer and guitar/banjo player,) and Andy LaFave (piano) in 2017 and 2022, respectively. After being vaulted to local fame in their birthplace of Missoula, with the Missoulian naming TopHouse one of the top 5 best new bands (two years in a row we might add), the band moved to Nashville, TN in October of 2019. TopHouse quickly set to work attaining a local residency as well as getting music played on Nashville's premier new-music radio station, Lightning 100. With some viral social media moments, a healthy dose of touring, consistent time in the studio, and a diet of Little Caesar's and Red Bull, TopHouse has continued to grow to the point of selling out venues in cities they've never even heard of. When they aren't touring the U.S. they can be found around Nashville, trying not to die in traffic and/or throwing the occasional round of disc golf.
Wheelwright brings a southwestern sound of pop and grunge from the sprawling desert city of Phoenix, AZ. None of his songs are idealistic. No light without darkness, no laughter without at least some suffering, no thoughtfulness without some recklessness. With devil may care spirit, and a message of hope, frustration, and love, Wheelwright's music contrasts between worlds of wandering existentialism, the strife of modern relationships, and the shreds of hope that can be found in darkest and most broken places of ourselves. Songs of acceptance, hard luck, and love without all the Kumbaya bullshit, but rather the idea that we are all beautiful and flawed, stuck here together, whether we like it or not. In his words, "Everybody has things about themselves that they don't like, they have things that they would change about themselves, but they also have spirits, and hopes, and dreams and light inside of them despite the darkness that seems to hang over us as we march into the uncertainty of what's next."