Auld Lang Syne Band

Hometown: Rochester, NY
Album: Midnight Folly
Band Members: Timothy Dick (guitar/vocals), Kathy Dick (vocals), Mike Bushen (guitar), Joe Bushen (accordion), Timmy Gallogly (bass/vocals), Jonathan Miller (drums/vocals)
For Fans Of: Deer Tick, The Felice Brothers, The Avett Brothers

Brooklyn, as it turns out, isn’t for everyone. A few years ago, Timothy and Kathy Dick were living in the hip New York borough, trying to make music and make ends meet, but it just wasn’t working out. So they packed up and moved a few hundred miles north to Rochester, where there was no kind of music scene but plenty of friends. “I didn’t know what to do and just wanted to start a group that would indulge in sort of the more fun side of music and playing simpler songs, not necessarily taking it quite so seriously,” Timothy Dick says. “Up till then, things had been very serious, but it was time to let all that go and have fun and not necessarily care too much.”

And so Auld Lang Syne was born. The couple joined forces with Bushen brothers Mike and Joe, Timmy Gallogly, and Jonathan Miller out of a simple desire to recapture the joy of playing music. Understandably, ego isn’t an issue with the new group—it’s everybody’s band. For their debut LP, the musicians split songwriting and vocal duties, often trading instruments to play to each other’s strengths. The result is Midnight Folly, an alternately joyous and heartbreaking collection of sprawling, ragged, rootsy rock ‘n’ roll.

Recorded mostly live in the attic above the Dicks’ new home, the album beautifully captures the spirit of the band and all of the contradictions their sound encompasses: freewheeling but patient, reckless but defined, inviting but isolated. The tender delicacy of “Red Feather,” a wistful acoustic track penned by bassist Gallogly, stands in stark contrast to the outlaw country of “Long Ago,” which manages to conjure up the ghost of Johnny Cash as Dick’s deep baritone voice menacingly rumbles out over the music like thunder.

In making the album, the bandmembers drew inspiration from Neil Young—a songwriter known for being unafraid to turn himself completely over to his muse—switching on their make-shift studio’s microphones and promptly losing themselves in the music, frequently allowing songs to stretch out past the six- and seven-minute mark. “We weren’t so much concerned with being radio friendly or creating that four-and-a-half minute pop song,” says Dick. “You do what you do in the moment for the love of it, and I think in this band, calculation or pretense just doesn’t come into play.”

The band caught its first big break when it was asked to open for The Avett Brothers, who found themselves in need of a last-minute support act in Rochester one night. The Dicks were camping out near Nashville at the time, though, and nearly missed the invitation. “Nobody knew where we were,” remembers Dick. “We had the phones turned off.” Though they’d never heard the Avett Brothers play before, the couple rushed back to Rochester in time to perform a rousing set—and The Avetts were impressed enough to invite Auld Lang Syne on the road with them to open a number of shows.

“Over the time we’ve spent with them and hearing them and being a part of that experience, [we] have really grown to love their music and the way they carry themselves,” Dick says now. “It’s been a really great experience."

- Paste Magazine On-line by Anthony D'Amato