Empty hearts. Broken bottles. Guitars that won’t stay in tune. Music for ramblers. Travelling Mercies began coagulating in early 2009, teaming an aspiring songwriter with an unlikely ensemble of talented Omaha music veterans.
The Travelling Mercies’ schtick features songwriting in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Steve Earle, and Bruce Springsteen played with the abandon of the Replacements, with original songs that “dig shallow graves for unlucky travelers and restless homebodies, burying their strife with [the Reverend’s] matter-of-fact baritone and packing down their last breaths of God-fearing air with vaporous dark humor.” -Omaha City Weekly
Internet-ordained holy man Rev. JD Holan tends a ragtag flock of salvation-seeking sinners (John Klemmensen on drums, Vern “Purdyboy“ Fergesen on bass, Colin Charles Duckworth III on guitar, and Edward “Willy Nilly“ Spencer on harp.) on a pilgrimage through the underbelly of the American musical subconscious. The Mercies bring a traveling show that is equal parts revival meeting and rock & roll exorcism.
