Old-time string band the Tillers will play at 8 p.m. today at the Mill.
By Adam Buhck
Music can manipulate moods, increase productivity, or even provide a glimpse of days long past.
Old-time string band The Tillers will do the latter when they bring their Midwestern tour to the Mill, 120 E. Burlington St., this Wednesday. The show stars at 8 p.m. and admission is $10.
The four-piece of Michael Oberst, Joe Macheret, and brothers Sean and Aaron Geil, has been a part of the Cincinnati music scene since 2007 when they first started playing around with a couple of banjos and guitars and a big old upright bass. Inspired by the folk greats of old like Woodie Guthrie, the group got their start playing covers of songs that, many times, were older than their grandparents.
“Folk music evokes the human condition through the ages, and is able to do so in a way that allows for the common listener to understand and feel the song’s purpose and statement, whether it be through the lyrics or a melody meant to be just felt and danced to,” Macheret said. “The old recording we’ve digested over and over again give us an a glimpse into how human lives and society developed to where we are today.”
The Tillers’ first gigs took place on Cincinnati’s Ludlow Avenue in the “Gaslight District,” a street famed for its historic aesthetic, dining options, and nightlife. The Tillers didn’t look like typical folk artists – their roots in the city’s punk rock and hardcore scene were still quite apparent at the time – but that punk influence gave their music the kick to win over the Cincinnati bar scene.
“We have always educated ourselves on many music forms and we all – individually at the time – just discovered a new musical love in these old songs,” Oberst said. “It just suited us.”
The Tillers’ sound, mingling traditional folk, bluegrass, jazz, and punk rock, has ensured diverse audiences. It’s not uncommon for them to fill a venue with hippies, punks, and professors all in the same night, all dancing, clapping with the rhythms, and singing along with Oberst and Geil’s tenor harmonies.
They even caught the attention of Tom Brokaw, who featured the band and their song “There is a Road, Route 50” on a 2010 documentary entitled American Character Along Highway 50, in which Brokaw traveled from coast to coast on Highway 50 interviewing average Americans about social and cultural issues.
“It didn’t make us famous, but the following year my wife and I drove Route 50 from coast to coast and we got two free meals along the way from some restaurant owners who’d seen the thing,” Oberst said. “That made me feel famous!”
Though the Brokaw bump didn’t propel The Tillers into the limelight, in the past nine years they’ve released five albums, the latest of which is 2013’s Hand On The Plow.
“I definitely think we have continuously become a tighter and tighter unit,” Sean Geil said. “There is a certain groove and flow that we fall into when we play together that I’ve never felt when playing with other musicians. It’s a very organic thing that has just gotten deeper throughout the years.”
MUSIC
The Tillers, Flash In A Pan
When: 8 p.m. today
Where: Mill, 120 E. Burlington
Admission: $10