Home is where the heart is, and Foxtrot & the Get Down has the City of Brotherly Love flowing through its bluesy veins. Comprised of Colin Budny, Ken Bianco, Erica Ruiz, Eric Berk, and Jimmy Iovine, the Philadelphia blues rock outfit recently released their debut full-length album, Roots Too Deep via Nashville label American Echo Records.
“It’s been a long time coming,” says frontman Budny. “We worked really hard to get the right opportunities business-wise, but everything fell into place by chance. Songs were still getting written, even after pre-production. The album ended up being an autobiographical story, a moment in time when everything we wrote about was happening at the time,” he explains of Roots Too Deep. “The first half of the album has been about the desire to leave home and see what’s out there, the second half is about realiixng how much our hometown and our families mean to us, and wanting to come back. It’s a love letter to home.”
Admittedly, Foxtrot & the Get Down has a sound that differs from what’s currently happening in the Philly music scene, but that doesn’t faze this group. “There is so much great rock n’ roll here. I do all the writing, and I grew up on the blues, and Clapton, and Cream,” says Budny. “We get the word ‘Southern’ thrown at us a lot, that we sound Southern, but to us it’s just rock n’ roll. We really wanted to stay true to who were were, regardless of what was happening in our local scene.”
The band spends a significant amount of time in Nashville, a familiar story around these parts except that Foxtrot & the Get Down eschews the sought-after label of “Nashville band.” “We’ve toured all over the place in the last year; we’re positive we’re staying a Philly band. We spend a lot of time in Nashville, but we stick out too much, just by speaking,” Budny laughs, and adds that everyone thinks they sound like Joe Pesci from Goodfellas. “Who knows, we could move tomorrow, but we’re resolute about what’s important to us.”
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