West Michigan’s Roosevelt Diggs: The Local Spins Artist Spotlight

The Americana quartet that sings about folklore heroes and meshes folk, country, bluegrass, rockabilly and swing will play the Buttermilk Jamboree on Friday. And check out how they got their name. (Video, podcast)

 

Leave it to the guys in Roosevelt Diggs to show a sense of humor in choosing “It’s About Time” for this week’s appearance on Local Spins Live radio.

After all, I’d tried several times to get the four-piece folk/country/Americana outfit scheduled for the weekly show on News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW), but job conflicts and other obstacles foiled those plans.

But with upcoming gigs as part of the third annual Buttermilk Jamboree on tap Saturday, three of the boys managed to fire up their acoustic instruments for a rollicking in-studio performance that served as a little preview of their twangy, string-driven weekend sets.

For a Grand Rapids-based band reared on ’80s rock ‘n’ roll, The Beatles, Pink Floyd and “Casey Kasem Top 40” pop songs, Roosevelt Diggs seems an unlikely Americana outfit: a high-energy, vintage-sounding quartet that channels the ghosts of mythic figures from U.S. folklore with an upright bass, guitars, mandolin, banjo, melodica and drums.

A MIX OF GENRES THAT ‘ALL KIND OF MELTS INTO ONE’

The compelling concoction of country, folk, rockabilly, blues, Western swing and bluegrass that emerges from Roosevelt Diggs – aka the guitar-playing brothers Logan and Levi Duddles, bassist Jon Shears and drummer Jared Behl – is a far cry from hair bands and Top 40 pop.

“It all just kind of melts into one,” Logan suggests. “We do what we do, I guess.”

Check out Roosevelt Diggs’ sound in a video of their performance of “It’s About Time” below, with a full podcast of the Local Spins Live show here.

That’s just part of what makes this band a tad different. For one thing, the five-year-old group has roots in Reed City, where the Duddles grew up, not exactly a hotbed of West Michigan’s burgeoning music scene.

For another, the band is named after a fellow upon whom the Duddles pulled a telephone prank as mischievous kids. It was just an unusual moniker they plucked from a phone book; now, it’s a memorable name for an emerging act on Michigan’s Americana scene.

EMBRACING ‘AMERICAN FOLKLORE’

The band’s debut album, released last year, is also unlike any other. The six-song EP recorded at Grand Rapids’ Stone House Recording pays tribute to folklore heroes the Duddles learned about as schoolkids: Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Casey Jones, Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill, Rip Van Winkle.

It’s certainly not typical fodder for a New Millennium recording, but it romps with robust vocals and instrumental muscle.

“We just thought it would be cool to have songs to tell the stories about those American folklore characters,” says Levi, who played with Logan as a duo until Shears, a Grand Haven native, joined the band. “We wanted to preserve those songs and those stories.”

Roosevelt Diggs will even uncork those musical tales for younger audiences in August as part of a Rockford reading festival.

As a foursome, band members feel they’ve really hit their stride. Behl joined the group a couple years ago, bolstering Roosevelt Diggs’ sound and making them wonder “how we went so long without a drummer.” They all plan to head back into the studio this winter to record the follow-up to “American Folklore.”

Until then, they’ll continue building their audience through live performances, serving as the “house band” at Rockford Brewing Co. (playing there the third Thursday every month, on June 20, July 18 and Aug. 10) and performing at 11:15 a.m. Saturday as part of the Buttermilk Jamboree at the Circle Pines Center in Delton. Get the full jamboree lineup, ticket details and more in this Local Spins story.

And for more about Roosevelt Diggs, visit its official website.

ROOSEVELT DIGGS: THE LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY (JUNE 12)