Replay Lounge & Black Heart Booking present:

IV and the Strange Band –
country/blues & stoner/doom from Nashville, TN
https://www.facebook.com/IVsonofIII
https://ivsonofiii.bandcamp.com/
https://ivandthestrangeband.com/

Arthur Dodge & the Horsefeathers – folk

https://www.facebook.com/andtheHorsefeathers

The Roseline – indie/folk/Americana/alt-country from Lawrence, KS
https://theroseline.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheRoselineBand
https://roselinemusic.com/
https://www.instagram.com/the_roseline_gram/

Friday August 5:
Replay Lounge
946 Massachusetts St
Lawrence, KS

21+ Event / $5 Cover
10:00 PM

IV and The Strange Band:
“Patience is a virtue.” Those words are tattooed across Coleman
Williams’ right arm, forever reminding the alternative-country
singer/songwriter of the benefits of taking one’s time.
The lesson wasn’t always so clear. As the great-grandson of Hank
Williams Sr., grandson of Hank Williams Jr., and only son of Hank 3,
Coleman spent years waging an internal battle with the expectations
thrust upon him by his own lineage. He represented the fourth
generation of country music’s most legendary family — hence his
nickname, “IV” — and the pressure to launch his own career was
enormous. Although Coleman would eventually make his mark with
Southern Circus — the genre-bending debut from his band, IV and the
Strange Band, combining southern storytelling and country textures
with 100-watt guitar amps and DIY attitude — he needed to break free
first and discover his own musical approach along the way.
“Before I even knew who I was, people were already expecting things of
me,” he says. “It felt like there was zero freedom of expression for
someone with the last name ‘Williams.’ Singing about a bloodline
didn’t appeal to me, though. I wasn’t interested in fitting into a
shadow that already existed. What did appeal to me was the underground
scene in Nashville.”
Coleman became a fierce champion of Nashville’s house-show circuit as
a teenager, drawn in by the scene’s supportive spirit and DIY ethics.
This was a community that valued principles over pedigrees. A
community that offered artists of all stripes a place to express
themselves. From punk shows to heavy metal gigs to electronic
experiments, Coleman loved it all… and for the first time in his life,
he felt like he belonged somewhere.
“I was a weird kid who grew up in an unusual situation,” he says.
“When I began going to house shows in Nashville, I felt like I’d found
a family of people whom nobody else wanted — kids who were different
and misunderstood — and during these two-hour shows, everyone
belonged, everyone felt accepted, and everyone had a place. The
experience taught me to trust my instincts. It gave me a new sense of
independence. I have to believe that’s why Hank Williams made music,
too; he could see what it did for people.”
Inspired to blaze his own trail, Coleman left town after high school
and traveled across America, developing musical tastes that were as
diverse as the country itself. Over the decade that followed, he
became a history buff, a poet, a metalworker, and an educator. Back
home in Nashville, he continued his lifelong practice of writing
songs, developing the unique sound — a blend of the amplified and the
acoustic, laced with fiddle one minute and heavy guitars the next —
that would later fill Southern Circus. Coleman took his time. He
wanted the sound to be right. Patience is a virtue, after all.
Local producer Jason Dietz became a fan of Coleman’s songs, prompting
the two to begin collaborating. Guitarist David Talley joined them, as
did banjo player Daniel Mason and drummer Carson Kehrer. All five
musicians (along with fiddler Laura Beth Jewell and steel player, John
Judkins who both appear on the record) came from different musical
backgrounds, but they worked together to build something new, using
Coleman’s acoustic tunes as the blueprint for a southern sound that
was soothing one minute and strident the next. An album began taking
shape. Just shy of his thirtieth birthday, Coleman Williams made his
long-awaited debut with “Son of Sin,” a single that was released in
2021 by IV and the Strange Band.
“I like to say, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stranger,'” he
explains. “I love strangeness and I love my Strange Band. The most
genuine people in this world are those who allow themselves to be the
weirdos they truly are, because once you repress yourself, that’s when
you become someone you’re not.”