Premiere: True Lions’ Cold Gravy Bowl is the noise-folk record you didn’t know you needed

True Lions. // photo by Taylor Carter

Over the years, True Lions has morphed from indie-pop to down-home country folk and been anything from a one-person performance from Alison Hawkins to a sprawling group of people on stage. It’s undefinable, yet with Hawkins at its core, there’s a singular voice which permeates anything True Lions does.

This is by way of saying that Cold Gravy Bowl, the new True Lions album which we are very excited to premiere, is a noisy, distorted mix of cacophony and melody, like a series of Alan Lomax field recordings ran through massive amps and a few dozen distortion pedals. It has the sweeping grandeur of Myrkur’s folk-infused black metal while bumping up against the edge of Abandoncy’s frantic noise rock, and it’s unlike anything the band has yet put to record.

But, again—Alison Hawkins and Fritz Hutchison have crafted something really special here, and listeners who have been on board for the full ride will absolutely understand just how this came to be. Take a listen to Cold Gravy Bowl while reading Alison Hawkins’ thoughts on the album, out now from Manor Records.

“First, I’d like to say that old-time fiddle tunes are what really brought me and Fritz together musically. Sure, we’d “played music together” in whatever various ways over the past years since we became friends in 2013, but with the pandemic narrowing our musical interactions with the world, we expanded musically with each other and freed ourselves through Ozark fiddle music at home. These tunes are near to my heart because I share them with him, and I’ve also loved learning similar folk traditions by being a part of the Rural Grit Happy Hour at the Brick every Monday. We’re very grateful for our RGHH community, we love them so much!

Cold Gravy Bowl cover. // art by Spade

We recorded Cold Gravy Bowl last August with our buddy Ross Brown (Fullbloods, Shy Boys). It was my first time creating an album with live takes, and also my first time achieving truly heavy sounds. Fritz and I had performed this set at various local venues about a dozen times over 6 months before recording it. It was totally fun exploring out of my comfort zone—playing more dynamically, quickly, expressively, efficiently, powerfully. I’m having the most fun with music when I’m trying new things. It’s also a blast watching Fritz play drums and synth at the same time, he’s incredibly gifted.

We were inspired by The Matchsellers’ 2022 album release The Wishful Thinkers Hall of Fame (best bluegrass band/album of all time) to come up with our own elaborate theatrical experience for our album release. We admire and look up to them so much. We’re lucky to call them friends and that they wanna do cool stuff with us!

The Emerald is a special venue with a rich history of curated artist-centered experiences—like music, comedy, burlesque, etc. We’re just blessed we get to play a show there while it’s still here and hopefully this event will bring more support to the venue moving forward so that it’s here to stay!”

Witness the theatrical punk drag rock and roll folk event with The Matchsellers on Saturday, March 2 at The Emerald. Details on that show here.