Teagan and The Tweeds

Teagan and the Tweeds is coming into its own.

In four years, the band has grown from three to six members, its Facebook has added more than 700 fans and the group’s sound has evolved from country to a blues-alternative-country mix. Heck, followers even call themselves Tweeders.

"We’ve got quite a following," says lead singer Teagan Ward, 23. "We can comfortably pack any venue for a show."

On Feb. 25, they will join several other bands for the Haiti relief benefit concert at The German House. And next month, they will be in Austin for the South by Southwest music festival, one of the largest in the country.

The band is also beginning to expand its presence on the Internet. In addition to its Facebook page, it has a MySpace page and a new blog, The Adventures of Teagan and the Tweeds (http://teaganandthetweeds.blogspot.com). Ward started the blog so fans could follow her and the Tweeds as they prepare for Austin. The band’s new Web site, Teaganandthetweeds.com, should be up by the time the festival kicks off March 17.

Ward started her musical career when she was 14, following in the footsteps of her mother, Renee, who also performed in a band. As Ward began covering and writing songs, Renee helped her daughter produce recordings in the basement of their Greece home. Some of Ward’s early covers included songs by Patsy Cline, the Dixie Chicks and Allison Krauss.

When Teagan Ward was in college, she met Katy Wright, a manager at Boulder Coffee Co. and soon the pair began networking with other musicians, which eventually led to the birth of Teagan and the Tweeds.

"We had a group of friends who would play the open mics and stuff (at Boulder Coffee)," says Ward. “Through word of mouth, trial and error, we kind of ended up putting a band together that works really well right now."

The band stays tight by playing in a Friday night volleyball league together and through weekly lunch dates, things that take off some of the edge of working together.

"I’m just really good friends with all of them," says Ward. "If I’m going out on a Friday or Saturday night, I’ll call all of them first before anyone else."

Wright, 26, who sings backup vocals and plays keyboards, agrees that the band has great chemistry. As she put it in a recent blog post, "The Tweeds are facing new opportunities, new fans, new ideas, and we couldn’t be happier ... Our group has connected in a way that works and we bring out the best in each other both musically and personally."

While Ward has already put out her own CD, Two Decades and a Dream, Teagan and the Tweeds expects to put out its first full album later this year, Wright says. - Rochester Metro Mix

The name Teagan and the Tweeds conjures up several images. I admittedly had an already-developed vision of who I was about to see before walking into the Lovin' Cup on Friday night. I placed my bets on finding a group of young hipsters, with a three-, maybe four-piece ensemble, and a few mellow country-pop tunes that would inevitably dance around the plane of mediocre alt-country and rest there until the show's end.

Instead I was blindsided by an energy-laced six-piece ensemble and a striking, powerhouse of a lead vocalist. From the moment the lights came up, Teagan and the Tweeds created an infectious rush of commotion. This was an impressive collection of musicians who could all hold their own as solo artists should they ever decide to stray from the pack.

You didn't have to be a country enthusiast to enjoy the beauty of what was happening on the stage. Although the group had traditional country at its core, it took a surprising leap into covering the likes of Janis Joplin's "Trouble in Mind" and the tenderness of Patsy Cline.

Teagan Ward's impressive vocal augmented the star power of the group with an unblemished vocal register and a spot-on punch of soulful heat. Her voice danced perfectly between the bright colors of pop and the lonesome heart of a country storyteller. Only about 5'3" in stature, she took command of the stage, and an enamored audience.

The band played skillfully through starry-eyed ballads and toe-tapping tunes, with a masterful endurance and a careful precision. Ward's best moment of the night was undoubtedly in her performance of the band's original tune, "Don't Walk Away."

I was floored by the far-reaching genres this band was able to wade through, and just as impressed by the musicians' casual nature and down-to-earth playing style. Make sure to check them out.
- Rochester City Newspaper

To define Teagan Ward's sound, look to her dog.

Her 4-year-old Jack Russell terrier is named Pearl, as in the Janis Joplin album.

"She is one of my biggest idols," Ward says. While she thinks highly of the dog, it's that Joplin achy-bluesy sound that inspires Ward's music.

Teagan and the Tweeds join the classic rock tribute band 50/50, the Phish tribute Big Eyed Phish, the Taint and Something Else at Thursday's "Rochester Cares: a Haiti Relief Benefit Concert."

The event, beginning at 6 p.m. at the German House Theater, 315 Gregory St., also features blackjack tables, a silent auction and members of the Rochester RazorSharks and Knighthawks.

"We're going for sort of a blues, alt-country feel," Ward says of her band.

"I've been writing a lot more grooving tunes, more on the blues end," she says. "We used to sound more folk-country before. We've added a lot more crunch."

"He's Gotta Go," which she calls "a really ripping blues song, an angry song," is typical.

"I have a very recurring theme of independence, I guess you could say, in a lot of my songs," says Ward.

Ward has been playing out since she was 16, and has developed a mature sound that begs to be cut loose. And that appears to be happening. The six-piece band has a March 4 appearance as a three-piece at Johnny's Irish Pub, and plays Dinosaur Bar-B-Que March 11.

Ward, a Greece native now living in Irondequoit, also holds down a solo gig every Tuesday night at Beale Street Café. And the band has hustled a couple of shows next month in Austin, Texas. While Teagan and the Tweeds don't have an actual showcase at the year's biggest music conference, South by Southwest, they have pulled off the next-best thing, landing a pair of shows in town during the fest.

"Persistence," she says, is the big lesson.

"As long as you stay motivated and stay on top of things, it happens quicker. That's one of my biggest faults, I'm not always the most persistent person. But I think I've gotten a fire lit under me the last couple of years."

What lit the fire?

"Age," Ward says of arriving at her self-imposed deadline.

"I told myself if I hit 23" — Oh no, she's almost dead! — "and I'm still doing what I want to be doing, then I need to working harder. I don't want to be one of those stale performers."

Admission to Thursday's benefit is $25, with proceeds going to the American Red Cross and InterVol to help with those organizations' work in Haiti.

For more, go to www.myspace.com/teaganandthetweeds. - Democrat and Chronicle