Missouri Homegrown

Some local music fans would say Missouri Homegrown is the quintessential bar band. The group certainly looks the part.
Tattoos cover the arms of Shay Fadden (vocals/rhythm guitar), Corey Clark (bass), Steve Hurley (lead guitar), Justin Early (rhythm guitar) and Josh Brown (drums). Not a clean-shaven face can be found in the bunch. At rehearsal Tuesday night in the band’s poster-plastered rehearsal space next door to the Chalk & Cue, they suck down cigarettes as if some kind of tobacco apocalypse is forthcoming, and the unmistakable popping sound of yet another can of Pabst Blue Ribbon being opened echoes through the room every 10 minutes or so.
They’re rebellious to the core, and Hurley even admits that they’ve all been in and out of jail before. Yet beneath the gritty exterior, the bushy beards and their intimidating image lies a band that’s passionate, focused and, most importantly, really, really talented.
They may live hard. They may party hard. But they rock even harder.
“If we would’ve been signed and had a bunch of cool stuff happen to us nine months ago or a year and half ago, we wouldn’t have been as ready as we are now,” Hurley says.
Missouri Homegrown has truly come a long way since the band came together in early 2011. It all started when Fadden and Clark began writing songs during a few basement hangouts. Things got a little more serious when Hurley moved back to St. Joe from Nashville — where he played guitar in a southern rock band and tried out some singer/songwriter material — and caught wind of what the pair was playing. He got on board and the trio played a Tuesday night session at Magoon’s that went surprisingly well.
“Everybody pretty much went nuts that first time,” Fadden recalls. “And we were like, ‘Wow. This is pretty weird. We need to write more songs.’”
Their songs melded the Sun Records-style country that Johnny Cash made famous with elements of brash rock and the kind of Outlaw twanginess that would make Merle Haggard proud. Fans also were drawn to Fadden’s vocals, which swelled with hard-boiled shouts and regressed into gravelly heartbreak. He immediately appealed to those who indulge in a little Steve Earle from time to time.
As the weeks dragged on, Early heard their tunes and asked if he could join. The band proceeded to pick up Brown on the drums, and the rest is history.
But over the last two years, the band often ventured away from the honky-tonk sound that brought them to the dance. As the five of them met up to rehearse, they often unwound and listened to old records. They’d spin Cheap Trick and early KISS. They’d spin Gram Parsons and The New York Dolls. They’d spin T-Rex and Mott the Hoople. These revelatory sit-ins laid the groundwork for Missouri Homegrown’s evolution.
“This whole band, to me, has opened my eyes musically,” Early says. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t listen to a lot of it. I was talking (poorly of) half the bands I listen to now.”
Missouri Homegrown slowly became the only music act in town blending the big sounds of glam rock with the adventurous experiments of psychedelia and layering them on top of the foundation of good ol’ fashioned country drinkin’ tunes. As Hurley sees it, The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman” and AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” aren’t all that different, and he views Missouri Homegrown as a representation of the space where those two styles find common ground.
In other words, it’s where the arena meets the barstool.
“When we play in front of people, we act like we’re playing in front of 50,000 people, so when you’re doing a honky-tonk song, it’s going to be more rock than it is in front of 20 people at a little saloon,” Hurley explains.
Needless to say, Missouri Homegrown has summoned a huge amount of energy in even the smallest local venues. They’ve rocked Magoon’s, The Rendezvous and the First Ward House as well as one-offs at Bliss Salon and Candy Shop Tattoo. But there’s one place where their shows venture into wild territory.
“All of our shows at the Cafe are the craziest of all,” Hurley says.
Those rowdy, memorable gigs full of drunken onlookers are a big reason why Missouri Homegrown chose to record its debut album live at Cafe Acoustic earlier this year. While most bands strive to record their debuts in studios, where they can obsess over every note and make their tweaks as they go along, Missouri Homegrown bucked convention. All five band members felt that a live recording, while not necessarily polished, would serve as the best representation of the group: fun, sweaty, raw and rambunctious.
You can get your hands on the album, “You Asked For It ...,” and some free merch at Missouri Homegrown’s CD release party at 9 p.m. tonight at Cafe Acoustic (why would they do it anywhere else?). Scruffy and the Janitors will open the show.
Southern rock, outlaw country and Americana fans should be floored when they pop in the CD. Fadden describes the anthemic “High in Missouri Tonight” as an “in-your-face - St. Joseph News Press

Some local music fans would say Missouri Homegrown is the quintessential bar band. The group certainly looks the part.
Tattoos cover the arms of Shay Fadden (vocals/rhythm guitar), Corey Clark (bass), Steve Hurley (lead guitar), Justin Early (rhythm guitar) and Josh Brown (drums). Not a clean-shaven face can be found in the bunch. At rehearsal Tuesday night in the band’s poster-plastered rehearsal space next door to the Chalk & Cue, they suck down cigarettes as if some kind of tobacco apocalypse is forthcoming, and the unmistakable popping sound of yet another can of Pabst Blue Ribbon being opened echoes through the room every 10 minutes or so.
They’re rebellious to the core, and Hurley even admits that they’ve all been in and out of jail before. Yet beneath the gritty exterior, the bushy beards and their intimidating image lies a band that’s passionate, focused and, most importantly, really, really talented.
They may live hard. They may party hard. But they rock even harder.
“If we would’ve been signed and had a bunch of cool stuff happen to us nine months ago or a year and half ago, we wouldn’t have been as ready as we are now,” Hurley says.
Missouri Homegrown has truly come a long way since the band came together in early 2011. It all started when Fadden and Clark began writing songs during a few basement hangouts. Things got a little more serious when Hurley moved back to St. Joe from Nashville — where he played guitar in a southern rock band and tried out some singer/songwriter material — and caught wind of what the pair was playing. He got on board and the trio played a Tuesday night session at Magoon’s that went surprisingly well.
“Everybody pretty much went nuts that first time,” Fadden recalls. “And we were like, ‘Wow. This is pretty weird. We need to write more songs.’”
Their songs melded the Sun Records-style country that Johnny Cash made famous with elements of brash rock and the kind of Outlaw twanginess that would make Merle Haggard proud. Fans also were drawn to Fadden’s vocals, which swelled with hard-boiled shouts and regressed into gravelly heartbreak. He immediately appealed to those who indulge in a little Steve Earle from time to time.
As the weeks dragged on, Early heard their tunes and asked if he could join. The band proceeded to pick up Brown on the drums, and the rest is history.
But over the last two years, the band often ventured away from the honky-tonk sound that brought them to the dance. As the five of them met up to rehearse, they often unwound and listened to old records. They’d spin Cheap Trick and early KISS. They’d spin Gram Parsons and The New York Dolls. They’d spin T-Rex and Mott the Hoople. These revelatory sit-ins laid the groundwork for Missouri Homegrown’s evolution.
“This whole band, to me, has opened my eyes musically,” Early says. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t listen to a lot of it. I was talking (poorly of) half the bands I listen to now.”
Missouri Homegrown slowly became the only music act in town blending the big sounds of glam rock with the adventurous experiments of psychedelia and layering them on top of the foundation of good ol’ fashioned country drinkin’ tunes. As Hurley sees it, The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman” and AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” aren’t all that different, and he views Missouri Homegrown as a representation of the space where those two styles find common ground.
In other words, it’s where the arena meets the barstool.
“When we play in front of people, we act like we’re playing in front of 50,000 people, so when you’re doing a honky-tonk song, it’s going to be more rock than it is in front of 20 people at a little saloon,” Hurley explains.
Needless to say, Missouri Homegrown has summoned a huge amount of energy in even the smallest local venues. They’ve rocked Magoon’s, The Rendezvous and the First Ward House as well as one-offs at Bliss Salon and Candy Shop Tattoo. But there’s one place where their shows venture into wild territory.
“All of our shows at the Cafe are the craziest of all,” Hurley says.
Those rowdy, memorable gigs full of drunken onlookers are a big reason why Missouri Homegrown chose to record its debut album live at Cafe Acoustic earlier this year. While most bands strive to record their debuts in studios, where they can obsess over every note and make their tweaks as they go along, Missouri Homegrown bucked convention. All five band members felt that a live recording, while not necessarily polished, would serve as the best representation of the group: fun, sweaty, raw and rambunctious.
You can get your hands on the album, “You Asked For It ...,” and some free merch at Missouri Homegrown’s CD release party at 9 p.m. tonight at Cafe Acoustic (why would they do it anywhere else?). Scruffy and the Janitors will open the show.
Southern rock, outlaw country and Americana fans should be floored when they pop in the CD. Fadden describes the anthemic “High in Missouri Tonight” as an “in-your-face - St. Joseph News Press