Deebs Days Countdown: An Interview with Alex King of Sicard Hollow June 17, 2022 22:30

As most music fans in and around the Birmingham area are already aware, CBDB and Big Friendly Productions have joined forces to bring an incredible new festival to Avondale Brewing Company this summer. Deebs Days Music Festival is pinned for Friday, August 19th and Saturday, August 20th in Birmingham (AL), and all signs point to an incredible celebration. If you haven't gotten around to purchasing your weekend passes, we've got you covered. Simply click the link below and secure your spot while you still can. 

As we prepare for the festival, we're catching up with a handful of the performers on the lineup. This week, we're continuing the official "Deebs Days Countdown" with Sicard Hollow frontman Alex King. Since the formation of the Nashville-based, jam-grass quartet in 2018, King and his bandmates have quickly established themself as one of the premier rising acts in the country. Sicard released its debut album just before the pandemic struck in 2020, and they have wasted no time climbing through the ranks of the "festival scene." The band has built a strong national following in just a short time, and there is clearly so much more to come. 

Many will recall Sicard Hollow from recent  performances at Resonance Music & Arts Festival, The Peach Festival, and Summer Camp Music Festival. They're no strangers to the big stage, and as King explains below, they couldn't be more fired up for Deebs Days. Check out the full interview below, and make sure to follow Sicard Hollow on Facebook and Instagram for all of the latest updates.

Alex: Yeah man. I want to say May of 2018. 

Alex: It's an interesting story all around, because I wasn't raised on bluegrass at all. Neither was anyone in the band, for that matter. So, I'm from Birmingham, and I started playing guitar as a teenager. My parents bought me my first guitar when I was 14 or 15. I was taking lessons, but it wasn't anything serious. I never pursued it past playing a couple of chords. It just wasn't my thing. Skateboarding was my thing.

So, fast forward to college. I went to Auburn University. Took a little bit of time off after my first year, and I found myself at Belmont University in Nashville. I was surrounded by a ton of amazing musicians, none of which played bluegrass. I didn't even know what bluegrass was at all, really. I knew what a banjo was, but I did not know the genre whatsoever. I had a guitar, and I started playing a little with people around Belmont. This was a little discouraging. These kids were freaks of nature on their instruments. It was super inspiring at the same time, because I saw what my peers were capable of. 

I decided to step it up and start picking. I'm playing electric guitar, and I meet our mandolin player, Will Herrin. At the time, he had never played a mandolin in his entire life. He played electric guitar, and he tried to get me to jam over and over and over again. I was just too nervous to go do it. Eventually, we jammed and started hanging out a bit. I was writing songs on acoustic guitar in my free time. I wouldn't sing or play in front of anyone. 

We ended up meeting Matt Rennick, who is our fiddle player. He was just incredible on the fiddle. We fit our genre around his instrument, because he was the best. I had these slower songs, and he could play fiddle really fast and intricately on them. The next thing we needed was a mandolin, so Will said "Screw it" and started learning mandolin. 

Sicard Hollow was really born out of that. Trying to throw shit at the wall, for lack of a better term. We just ended up sticking with bluegrass. We all started to figure it out. Now, I've studied and gone down the hole with traditional, new grass, jam grass, and all of the above. Now I consider it a part of my soul, honestly. 

Alex: At first, I didn't really want it to be that. It wasn't Sicard Hollow. It was four guys. We had an upright bass player who was Will's next-door neighbor. I had no intention of it being a touring band. I was scared, and I didn't really want this. It found me, and it's such a non-traditional Nashville story. I moved here to figure something out, and it wasn't music. 

Our first show was pretty unique. Our friend Andrew Manes, and our now manager, Tim Coughlin, were hosting an event at a local outdoor venue. They were streaming a Phish show, and he wanted us to "open" the show with a three-hour set. I'm just like, "Holy shit! We have to play for three hours, and we have maybe four originals." (laughs).

We end up having over 100 people at our first show. Whether they were there to watch Phish or see us play, we played for three hours to over 100 people. Off the get go, I think we had that boost of confidence from a really positive crowd response. It was really encouraging to get that type of feedback on the first gig. 

We kept on progressing in town. Then we'd drive an hour or so outside of town, and once again I'm just like, "Holy shit! We're getting paid to go play out of town, and we're not losing money." This is our fifth or sixth show at this point. We had this push early on, and I think it really kicked everyone in the ass a little. If this door is going to open up a little, let's kick it down and run with it as far as we can. 

I think that mentality has really been the driving force. Now we're working with an agency. We're playing a bunch of festivals and touring all over the country. It's so crazy to think how much it has escalated over the past four years. It was so reassuring from the get go, which I don't think is the case for most bands. I really want to add that I'm incredibly grateful for our trajectory, and how it's been going thus far. 

Alex: Right. And not being possessive about it, but Phish is my band (laughs). They saved my life, honestly. I started touring Phish when I was 20 years old, and I really started pouring all of my energy into that. Through Phish, I found my own musical passion. To have our first show being the "opener" on a big Phish streaming party - it was perfect. The stars aligned. It was such a reassuring experience. 

Alex: Absolutely. I'm no stranger to any of them. I've got my hands in a lot of baskets as far as jam bands go. That's for sure. 

.

Alex: That's a good question. We played this festival called Bluegrass In The Bottoms in Kansas City. It was about a nine hour drive out there. Jeff Austin Band, Railroad Earth, Trampled by Turtles, Lindsay Lou, and so many major bands were on the lineup. I knew about these bands back then, but it's even crazier now to look back and think on it. I really didn't know what I was doing back then. I still don't know what I'm doing now. This is all sink or swim. Walk the plank. Jump in. See how long you can tread water for. It was super intimidating going there. 

I'll mention this. I remember getting there, and there was a band called Kind Country. Rest in peace to Max Graham. Rest in peace to Jeff Austin, too. Max Graham was so hands on with us. He was so nice to us. We're in the green room, and there were all these killer musicians back there. I'm just keeping my tail between my legs. I wasn't going to talk to anyone. 

Max really made us feel like we belonged though. Then we finally got to play a set of our music to a bluegrass crowd. Not a jam band crowd or a Nashville crowd, but these people were there to see bluegrass. The response was incredible. All of these out-of-town people coming up and asking us where we're from. Trying to link us up with new bands and venues across the country. 

This was our first bluegrass festival. And as far as I know, a lot of these other bands have been doing this for a little bit longer than we have. It was really a crazy turning point for me. That festival put a lot of things into perspective for me. It also showed us what we needed to work on. That was Bluegrass in the Bottoms. I think it was three years ago. 

Alex: He is indeed!

Alex: He is NASTY!

Alex: Alright. I don't want to go on too long of a rant here, but I'll give you a quick run down of who has played bass for us and led us to Parrish. Chris Hancock was our first bassist. We were jamming at Will's house, and he walks over from next door with a massive upright bass above his head like a Tuscan Raider in Star Wars. He's probably late 30s, early 40s. He's a handyman, and he ends up getting in a circular saw accident. His glove got sucked into the saw. He sends us a picture of his thumb literally dangling. 

So, we go bass-less for a little bit. Then, we picked up our buddy Trevor Clark. Shoutout to Trevor. He's an incredible musician. He really put us on to bluegrass when we moved into town. Trevor filled in for a bit, but he has his own career. He ultimately needed to focus his time and commitment on his own endeavors.

So, we're back to bass-less. Matt (Rennick) is like, "I know this guy named Parrish." And my first question is, "Is he cool? is he the dude?" Matt assures me that he's the guy. So, Matt calls him up and asks if he has an upright bass. I think Parrish pulled one out of storage, and he was down immediately. He came over, and we must have jammed for six hours. 

At this point, I've never heard him play an electric bass. I've only heard him on upright. He's obviously the homie. He's my brother. Immediately, when we started talking, I told him he was my soul brother, and I had his back for life. He was totally down and wanted the gig. Then a little later, I hear him plug in and play an electric bass. I had to sit him down and tell him that I would feel bad taking him away from that, if that's what he wanted to do. 

I haven't seen someone slap a bass like that, first hand, maybe ever. It was an interesting thing. We didn't want to take him away from what he loved to do, but he really found a home in Sicard Hollow. He still gets to flex his slap chops in his side project, KillaKeyz. 

Alex: Yep. KillaKeyz is great. He still gets to do a lot of that. Since day one, Parrish has just been down to play. We're very blessed and grateful to include him in the Sicard Hollow family.

Alex: Let's gooo!

Alex: Man, that means so much!

Alex: It's funny you mention that song. I'm literally about three feet from the water at the Harpeth River right now. This is where I wrote that song. I spend a lot of time here drinking my coffee and writing music. The first line in that song, "Let's walk down to the water / It's how I spend my time," that's what I do literally every day. I'm a river rat to my core. 

It's funny you bring that up, because I'm sitting here staring at the Harpeth. That just kind of took me back to when I started writing that tune. I'd just go down to the river. Take out my guitar. Maybe crack a beer, or not. I drink my coffee down here too. I just start singing random shit. If something pops in my head, I'll just go with it. 

I take out my phone and turn on the recorder. If you go through the voice memos on my phone, there are just hundreds and hundreds. A bunch of them are just jibberish trash, but you find some diamonds in there occasionally. When I started writing "Little Miss Tipsy," it was from my perspective, at first. The more I thought about it, it really wasn't me. It was more like a girl that I know from a festival. 

The song kind of wrote itself after that point. That's kind of my writing process. I like to be a vessel to it. I can't really force anything, but when it's flowing, grab it and run with it. Or let it take you wherever it's going to. "Little Miss Tipsy" was one of those where the words were just rolling off my tongue. 

Alex: Man, I really appreciate that. Yes, it did. I wrote it while ago. We have a new album coming out later in the year, and contrary to what people believe, "Little Miss Tipsy" will not be on it. We have so much material that we need to record. We decided to go back in the studio and cut a few more tracks that won't be in the album, so there is something to keep people on the edge of the seat until the album release.

Alex: That's right. Everything except the live album. Our friend Hank mixed that one. For the first album, Dan was our original banjo player. Dan is also an audio wizard, and he's amazing at what he does. Dan engineered the first album too, along with Preston White, at Southern Ground. That's Zac Brown's studio, which is just incredible. Dan has been amazing to work with. His work ethic is incredible, and we definitely wanted to go back and work on the next album with him. 

We also worked with John Mailander, who plays fiddle with Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers, on the new album. He played fiddle on two of Billy Strings' albums (Home & Renewal). He plays with Billy a good bit. Having Dan and John on the creative side of the second album has just been a leveling up experience. The first album was great. We were figuring out how to swim. Then with the second album, now we know how to swim and we're working on technique. Getting going in the pool quicker, or maybe in a more beautiful way. 

I don't know if that's a good analogy or not (laughs). We leveled up though. Dan has too. It's nice to see these relationships that we have, where we are all progressing, and we're all able to continuously scratch each other's backs as our careers heighten and progress. It's really been cool.

Alex: I want to say that everything has been played live, but several songs have only been played a few times. We've been on the road testing some of them out. We haven't played them as much back home. I think there will be plenty of people surprised by what's on the album, and the way we present them on the album. There may be some slightly different arrangements and tempos. 

This is going to be the largest caliber show that we've played in Birmingham. I've been waiting for this. It almost feels like our Birmingham debut of sorts, because we've leveled up so much since the last time we played there. We are just elated to be included. As far as the performance goes, there is another bluegrass band in Birmingham called The Mountain Grass Unit...

Alex: Thanks so much Jordan. We're just as excited!