Ryan Jennings - Teddy And The Rough Riders Interview
Jennings grew up in the Hillsboro Village in Nashville, TN where he rode skateboards and played with the local neighborhood kids. His parents got him a kid drum set and allowed him to take classical flute lessons, but quickly he transitioned to music of his own, finding something more personal and special within its unmeasurable gifts. He eventually met his close friend and bandmate, Jack Quiggins. The two lived in Knoxville, TN when they first formed T&TRR alongside their other friend, Matt McQueen on drums. The trio would soon meet Luke Schneider and eventually have the opportunity to work with the great Margo Price! In this interview we explore Jennings’ youth growing up, being surrounded by musical neighbors and families, relocating to Knoxville to form T&TRR, working with Margo Price and much more!
Tell me about growing up in Nashville, TN. What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was music relevant around your household growing up? Do you have any siblings?
Grew up in a cool area, Hillsboro Village and had a core group of neighborhood kid friends that we still hang out with, where I met Jack, mainly skateboarding at first, but we soon started playing music, or just listening to a lot of it. It was pretty ideal neighborhood with parks and activities and friend groups as far as sandlot vibes. My parents loved music, but didn’t play. They got me a kid drum set and I took classical flute lessons, also took me to Georgia family where my great uncles had a bluegrass band. I have an older sis and jack has a older brother and sis.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music?
Definitely grew up on The Beatles and bluegrass before country. Oh Brother Where Art Thou was a very formative movie. There were a lot of professional songwriters and musician families that lived around us and had amazing influence. My dad loved WRVU Vanderbilts old community radio. I Played my first show at Browns Diner actually. Then when we could drive, we just drove around listening to Black Sabbath, or rocking out in our buddies backyard!
Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to TRR? How did you initially meet your bandmates? What initially led to forming the group? What was the overall chemistry between everyone when you guys first got together?
I was in a psych rock band called Paperhead in high school and we got to put some records out, so that’s when I was too deep to ever leave music! Then I moved to Knoxville and Jack and I formed Teddys with our other long time friend Matt McQueen on drums. The chemistry was great, it was a cheap old house in Knoxville, our neighbors loved to hear us play and we just drank George Dickel and starting trying to write our version of country songs. Then back in Nashville we got to go to see Santas Ice Cold Pickers, every Sunday at Santa’s pub. Just an amazing night of country music and was a great inspiration.
When and where did you guys make your live performance debut and what was that experience like? The band recorded two singles, one self-released and the other on Third Man Records in 2017/18. Tell me about writing and recording those albums. How did the deal with TMR come about?
Our first show was just a backyard party in Knoxville. But we intended to come back to Nashville and give it a shot, we were friends with Luke Schneider, who played steel with Margo Price at the time. He was an instant fit for our sound and helped push it to TMR for the single later on even after congress. And we’ve been friends with Ben Swank at TMR, a big supporter of the Nashville diy/kid/upstart band scene. The EP (double seven inch) was recorded in my bedroom and at another cabin house. These songs were our first written in Knoxville together. And then later we tracked the TMR single in the blue room after hours. Both engineered/mixed by another long time friend Jake Davis.
2019 saw the release of the band’s debut full-length “The Congress...” What was the overall approach to this album and would you mind giving a brief background to songs such as “Bite Me”, “How Dare You”, “Nothing Left” and “Bunny’s Song”? You guys had a few other folks join in to bring this album to life. What was the overall vision for the record?
Yeah with Congress we just wanted to do a full record on the tape machine I have, a Tascam 16track, in my bedroom and we all lived in this decaying historic mansion house off of music row. Jack and I just basically have a lot of songs we individually brought to the table. And had a good time, with the immense help of Jake Davis. Bite me I wrote about being bitter and Steve Daly played lead guitar on it, he rules. How Dare You is a Jack song, he wrote about defending a friend. Nothing left was one of the first country songs I wrote, listening to Willie Nelson, who has the kind of droning chord changes. Bunny song I wrote about our overgrown backyard and this bunny family that lived there. As far as a vision it’s still just trying to play fun country music and write a lot of songs!
The band released its “Official” debut LP last year in 2022. What was the overall approach and vision for this record? What did you guys ultimately want to bring to the table that you hadn’t before with other works? When and where did recording begin and what was it like to work with Margo Price on this project? How did the deal with Appalachia Record Co. come about?
We wanted the s/t record to be a quality step up, so we went into this studio, Club Roar, and asked Margo to produce and sing on it. It was great I think we tried to write some more direct meaningful songs and sculpt a fuller mature teddy picture. Thing is we did it in 2019. So we were shopping it right at the start of Covid… So we were put on pause for a few years. Margo was great in studio, she was actually like pretty dang pregnant too, so she would put the headphones on her belly. She does perfect percussion overdubs as well! Her and Emily Nenni did great background singing. Thankful for Appalachia Record Co, who we reached out to following the Loney Hutchins Sr reissues. They’re great and they are about to put out a new Jessi Colter record that Margo and her band played on!
What are you guys up to this spring/summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Summer we’re on tour in Emily Nenni’s band, heading back to Europe for some both Emily and Teddy shows in June. We have fully recorded a new Teddy album that we’re currently shopping and working on releasing. It’s a great record we’re proud of, can’t wait to hopefully share asap - I’d say it’s quick, catchy and rockin!
