j roddy walston is not soft like someone born into privilege, but he does bear the hesitant scars of a man who fought his way out of a pedigree.

yoked from day one to a musical lineage that included "both kinds of music – country and gospel."

he was told with regularity that it was close to sin to play either for any reason but God and Family.

and that when the city comes courting with contracts and such he was expected to follow tradition…and walk away.

"a weight is kindly put upon you with a heritage, and a choice comes to you in time, at that point you can just become an extension or you can get born and grow legs of you own."

it is a stranger south that j roddy walston lived in, a place where radio gave equal ear to classic rock, hell-fire evangelists, and the elephant six.

powered and inspired by this mixture of art, spirit, and temptation he left home, in as much an attempt to bring his kin due credit as to rebel against the very things they had stood for.

he followed a girl north enough, and landed in baltimore with a low budget sense of manifest destiny and a handful of high dollar songs.

an undecided magnet started to draw to him a group of players. first came the challenge and compliment of billy gordon a musical mirror-image of j roddy and then steve colmus a sportly southpaw with a heavy snare hand. in them raw power met story and neither would compromise.

they felt a city squeeze. they formed an intangible thumb, and they them turned into a fist.
knowing good and well that you can predict a purebred, j roddy walston and the business opted to create a monster of the unknown, they threw what seed and egg they had into an american grab bag and hit the road. bending highways and rearranging maps to their fancy, making a different america for itself.

vision casting a strange view of the states to all who would listen, their agenda seems to be some sort of anti-secession, a growing over, rather than a breaking away.

a ceaseless expansion of the world where the rust belt and bible belt have been grown together to form a rock and roll quilt that knows no end.

i have seen their world. they perform in a place where the hedonists and believers are cut from the same cloth.

well-educated blue collars from busted boom towns forced to school when the factory option was taken away.

blue bloods working for a dime instead of taking the family money. renters and owners, evangelicals and recovering Catholics, nine to fivers and the service industry.
they all touch there.
i stumbled through a one way door. i now have a knowledge of these beatnik/honkey tonks and i can't seem to unknow it.

in these places j roddy walston and the business is the hometown band.

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Matt Pelham, Roger Dabbs, Don Sergio, and Parrish Yaw attended middle school together in Sparta, Tennessee, a rural town that at the time had a population of less than 5,000. Pelham, Dabbs, and Sergio started a band when they were in the eighth grade out of boredom, and they started playing covers of Camper Van Beethoven, Neil Young, Guns N' Roses, and others. As they continued through high school, they continued to play together at local events like parties and talent shows, then graduated to playing at various bars and clubs around nearby college town Murfreesboro and in Nashville.


Within a few years they had become a fixture of Murfreesboro and nearby Nashville, and soon signed a deal with Spongebath Records, a local independent label that featured several of the biggest rock acts in the Nashville area such as Self, The Katies, and Fluid Ounces. Their first release, a six-song self-titled EP, was released in 1997.

Once they graduated from high school, Pelham and Dabbs moved to Murfreesboro to study music at Middle Tennessee State University while Sergio and Yaw went to Tennessee Technological University in nearby Cookeville. It was here that Pelham and Dabbs brought classmate Jason Taylor on to play drums, and Sergio brought Yaw on to play keyboards. Murfreesboro was a much larger town than Sparta, and The Features began to play at various bars and clubs around town, eventually dropping out of college to focus on the band.

In 1998, the band recorded a full-length LP for Spongebath. The album was never released, although two tracks from the sessions, "Thursday" and "Rabbit March", were released as a limited 10" vinyl record. Around this time, original members Don Sergio and Jason Taylor both left the band. Taylor was replaced by Rollum Haas.

In 1999-2000, they recorded their second full-length LP with Matt Mahaffey at his studio in Murfreesboro, which was also never released. In 2001, they released "The Beginning" EP. Their incessant touring and critical buzz led to a deal with Universal Records. Universal re-released "The Beginning" EP in 2004, and followed with their first-officially released album, Exhibit A. The band gained a lot of exposure opening for fellow Tennesseans Kings of Leon on various tours.

Currently, the band consists of Matthew Pelham, Roger Dabbs, Mark Bond, and Rollum Haas. They are unsigned and have had limited success, but have been well received by British media.

In 2007, they won the international Diesel:U:Music Awards, placing first in the Rock/Indie category and in the Public Vote award.

After winning the regional competition "Bonnaroo 8 off 8th" in Nashville by placing first with a panel of judges and a public vote, the band performed at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music Festival.

In 2010, the band was the opening act for Manchester Orchestra, an indie rock band from Atlanta that shares a similar sound.