Last Tuesday, a crowded house turned out at the Troubadour in West Hollywood for a night of Christmas tunes and new music from a group of ten singer-songwriters collectively known as Ten Out of Tenn.

Nashville, Tennessee has always been thought of as a city of country music. When Ten Out of Tenn founder Trent Dabbs moved to “Music City”, he was surprised to find an often overlooked community of talented musicians. Many of these artists were not new to the scene, some having toured and played Marc Brossard, Sarah McLachlan and Mat Kearney, however none had received the exposure to rise from Nashville’s underground scene. The more that Dabbs listened, the more he discovered such incredible music and knew that this could not go unnoticed by the music industry. And so began the promotional super group known as Ten Out of Tenn[essee].

When I arrived at the show, the venue was already near capacity. Christmas stockings decorated the back wall of the stage and red ribbons accented keyboards, microphone stands and the drum set across the stage. I was unsure how the show would be arranged with ten musicians (not including the drummer) set to play, but what I did not expect was for all of them to share the stage the entire night. Each individual artist was allowed to play two songs, while the other musicians played keyboards, guitars or provided guest vocals. There was a strong sense of friendship and respect displayed for one another. They seemed like a great group of friends playing together as they all performed with the same amount of enthusiasm and spirit whether it was their own song or another’s. Having come to the show only knowing one artist, I essentially discovered nine new artists. These artists may be flying under the radar, but the talent demonstrated Tuesday night was certainly obvious.

Coming to the show, the only artist I had extensively listened to was Erin McCarley. Her performances of “Pony (It’s Ok)” and “Little Drummer Boy” were astounding as expected, however it was discovering the talent of these artists that I had never heard of, which blew me away. TOT founder Trent Dabbs’ original piece “Raise the Tree” was both holiday inspiring and catchy, as audience members learned the words during the song, and by the last verse were signing “..this Christmas is better with you” right along with Dabbs. Michael Perryman Jones sounded remarkably similar to recent alternative chart topper Matt Nathanson and TOT new-guy Andrew Belle reminded of Brett Dennen. However each artist added their own unique flavor to the music that made each song memorable for different reasons. Tyler James rose from the keyboard midway through his jazzy rendition of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” to jump into a brilliant trumpet solo. However, the extraordinarily talented k.s. Rhoads stole the show with his performance of an unreleased track, “The Years” off of his upcoming album. All ten other musicians (including the drummer) exited the stage leaving Rhoads alone with the audience. He chatted with the audience a little and then he began to beatbox, then created a sound loop, and then played the harmonica, and looped that too. Next thing the audience knew he had created the entire backdrop of his song with the click of a foot pedal (See the video below). Rhoads, known for his hip-hop style freestyles did not disappoint ending the song with a multiple-minute flow. Allow me to paraphrase a little bit about what he said: Los Angeles is a great city and very comparable in artistry to Nashville, TN. Just as many LA people are involved in the movie industry, the music industry is his life back home. He’s broke, and can’t even pay for his bills some months, and yet it’s the love of the music that keeps him playing.

Rhoads is not alone. There is an honest feel to the music by the members of Ten Out of Tenn. They play because they love music. They create songs to share it with people across the United States, and around the world. Do they have the talent to be chart-topping artists? You bet. Do they care about being at the top? Of course they’d love that, but it is not what defines them. Ten Out of Tenn is held together by friendships and a sense of community, all of them calling Nashville home. The nearly two-hour show was just a small display of the potential of these individuals. The show culminated with a rousing performance of “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”. Each of the ten members sang lines from the song and stood in line on stage encouraging the audience to sing-a-long with them. Erin McCarley and Katie Herzig held up “War is Over” and “If You Want It” signs. It felt like a giant Christmas carol and with that song we knew Christmas season was upon us. Ten phenomenal artists and a dozen Christmas tunes at the hallowed Troubadour. There’s no better way to open up the month of December.

Ten Out of Tenn is made up of Trent Dabbs, Erin McCarley, Michael Perryman Jones, k.s. Rhoads, Tyler James, Andy Davis, Butterfly Boucher, Katie Herzig, Andrew Belle and Jeremy Lister.

–Peter Wardell