Track Dogs are bringing their Americana, bluegrass, Latino rhythms and folk to The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

In Madrid.

And nearly 20 years later they’re still playing together as the band Track Dogs.

That’s a slightly reductive telling of how Garrett Wall (vocals, guitar), Dave Mooney (bass), Howard Brown (trumpet), and Robbie K Jones (percussion) came together, but it’s not far off.

Taking their name comes from the dark subterranean world of New York’s subway system, their sound blends Americana, bluegrass, Latino rhythms, folk, and blues. Later this month, they return to Portsmouth for their biggest headline show to date here.

Robbie explains how they came together: “Each of us was in Madrid on his own steam and as a sort of Venn diagram of the being English speakers, and expats, and musicians, and fans of pints of Guinness, we all met in an Irish pub where Garrett and Howard were working across the street at the English academy. They used to go there for their after work, and I used to go in there for Irish music sessions, jam sessions, and the fourth member, Dave, he was the barman.” It was through Garrett that they found each other.

Garrett adds: “I guess the common denominator was me because I went over to hire equipment from the Irish bar to do solo gigs, and that’s how I got to know Dave. We got chatting and he introduced me to Robbie.”

It wasn’t until their first rehearsal in 2006 that all four were in the same room at the same time.

“That was kind of special,” recalls Garrett, “because we all got on really well from the very first moment. There was a great musical chemistry.”

Robbie continues: “He said in that rehearsal: ‘This is no longer a singer, songwriter and musicians, this is a band’. And we've been the same four members of the band since that rehearsal.”

Garrett had been gigging for 15 years already by this point, but he says: “I was never truly convinced by what I was doing live. It was always battling the drums or one thing or another. So when we all got together, that first rehearsal for me was like a bulb went off and it was like: ‘Yes, this is what I've been looking for all my life!”

"In a way in a way I say we represent four different countries because Garrett and Dave are Irish,” says Robbie. “Howard is from Sheffield, and I’m from Cleveland, Ohio – a little town called Vermillion and the fourth country being Spain, where we all live.”

While they’ve kept that same lineup, they admit that had one of the band wanted to return to their home country in the early years, that would have been the end of Track Dogs.

“I think if that was to happen now, it wouldn't affect us in the way that we're now operating, that we could make that happen,” explains Garrett. “But if that had happened six, seven, eight years ago, it would have been the end of the band, because we wouldn't have seen the way forward.

“Thankfully that never happened. It's amazing that over almost 20 years, throughout the pandemic and everything, we've maintained that cohesion. Interestingly, it's because of our lack of success!”

Robbie adds: “By that he means that we were never 100 per cent dependent on the band, so that when the touring work stopped with lockdown, we were all used to finding bits and bobs to get by. “Had we been living 100 per cent off the band when that happened, like for so many bands, that would have been it.”

Operating as a self-contained business, the band has been able to be “truly indie.”

While it was Garrett’s “no electric guitar, no drums” rule that helped shape the band’s sound at first, that has evolved over the years.

"I spent so many years battling at live gigs where I was losing my voice because of the noise or mainly with the drums,” Garrett explains. “And also, carrying drums around is a big handicap for any band.

“One of the reasons why we've actually been able to tour is that Robbie can put his drum – his cajon – in a suitcase, so we can all fit in one car!

“The acoustic nature of the lineup was, at the beginning, for me, really important,” he says. “It was just so easy to hear ourselves and make out each instrument, and then over the years, we all added one instrument to the pot.

“I added ukulele, Robbie took the banjo, Dave took up mandolin and Howard, who's a drummer as well, plays the cajon when Robbie isn't. So we were able to double our instrumentation and that then led to an evolution on its own of styles and possibilities."

They all now sing too.

“Originally we were only two singers and now the four of us sing. So that's also something that we needed time to do. “If we'd only lasted five to 10 years, we never would have seen that element come through. The evolution of the sound is thanks to our perseverance.”

That side grew from tackling a cover of The Band classic, The Weight.

Robbie recalls: “We did the harmonies for that, and then shortly thereafter Garrett came up with a song that had four part harmonies in it.

“Then that one song became various songs and now is a central feature of what we do.”

“It's amazing how the four voices do work together,” says Garrett. “But then again, that is purely because of time. Robbie wasn't singing at all at the beginning and now he's doing sort of co-frontman work. That's been kind of amazing to see that develop.”

While the band write a lot of their own material, they have also become well-known for their covers. The last album featured a sublime take on Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon, but there's also been James Taylor’s Carolina in My Mind and Man of Constant Sorrow, as popularised in the Coen brothers hit film O Brother, Where Art Thou? among numerous others.

Many of them came about from a couple of radio shows they occasionally contribute to back in Spain.

“There’s one who tends to do these kind of shows where he does a tribute to, say, 50 years of Sweet Baby James album with James Taylor,” explains Robbie, “or the XYZ of Fleetwood Mac, and we’ve been invited to contribute to them.

“We've been fortunate to pick songs where we thought, ‘okay, the cover that we've done for this one night performance actually suits us!’ And so various songs have come out of there.

“Various of these songs have been kind of homework assignments that we owned. I mean, not all of them have made it into the live gigs, but quite a few of them have.

Garrett goes on to reveal another cover they’ve recently recorded.

“It’s a Thin Lizzy song, which is we haven't released yet, but we recorded it with an Irish guy living in Spain (Peter M Smith) who is currently starring in a new musical about the life of (Thin Lizzy’s legendary frontman) Phil Lynott in Dublin. And it's it's a huge, huge success.

“It's called Moonlight – The Philip Lynott Enigma. It's going to be a big, big thing because he looks and sounds exactly like Phil Lynott.” Reviews so far have indeed very favourable.

“We have that lying in wait for the right moment.

“It's great to be able to go in and do something and reimagine a song or give it something of our own or collaborate like with Peter.

“Covers are always really, really interesting. We don't record an album now without actually including at least one, if not two covers...”

And this segues neatly into their new double-disc, 40 track compilation album, which is officially released on April 25, but will be available at the Wedge gig.

“...Hence the name of the new album, Tracks Laid, Tracks Covered, we kind of have to recognise that.”

“Garrett did a great job curating it, and then we all commented and told him what he did wrong,” Robbie deadpans.

“Which is how everything tends to work in this band,” Garrett replies. “I do the legwork and then they criticise it!

“Actually it wasn't easy until we decided that it had to be based on what we play live and then that made sense. Pretty much every song in the 40 are songs that we play regularly, so in that sense it's a good reflection of the live show.”

In recent years the band have formed a close friendship with superstars of the folk world, Show of Hands, who retired last year.

They toured together not just as headline and support, but also as a band combining the members – Show Dogs.

Steve Knightley, Show of Hands lead vocalist and guitarist, heard the Dogs soundcheck at the Costa Del Folk festival on Ibiza in 2018. He was so impressed he called bandmate Phil Beer over to check them out as well.

“They just sort of took us under under their wing.

“I think the initial proposal was to do something for 2020 or 2021.But of course, I don't know if you were aware of the news of 2020... but not not all things happened as they were meant to!”

Show of Hands’ booking agents, Firebrand, also took them on, on the basis of of Steve and Phil's recommendation.

"That was huge for us,” says Garrett. “Then obviously our relationship with them went from strength to strength until we toured with them.

“Of course, they disbanded but Firebrand decided to keep us on, so we owe them an awful lot.

"We'll be seeing them in Exmouth, I think, on this tour.

“Phil came to see us play in Dublin in February. And any opportunity we get to see them or play with them is always brilliant, you know, and we feel very honoured to have had the experiences we've had.

"I remember one time when we first got to know Steve, we were playing at Shrewsbury (Folk Festival in 2019) and we ended up on stage with Seth Lakeman and Steve doing a kind of an impromptu jam.

"Those kind of things for us at the beginning were like: ‘Wow, this does not happen every day!’

"It's been it's been great to have their help because just being linked with with that kind of pedigree of artists has been huge for us.”

The band have previously played in Portsmouth at The Square Tower and The Corner Collective.

On April 24 they play at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea. Tickets £19. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.