Nashville-based alternative-rock outfit Elliot Root has been gaining a lot of local attention lately, most recently topping Spotify’s “Sounds of Nashville” Top 100 chart.
Its Live On the Green performance marks a special homecoming show after a long stretch on the road.
“This summer has been our first summer out touring, and these first opportunities we’ve been getting have been great,” frontman Scott Krueger said in a phone interview this week. “We got to carry a little bit of Nashville and its momentum with us, and now we get to come home and celebrate the great summer we had.”
The band is set to kick off the free outdoor concert series, now in its seventh year, at downtown Nashville’s Public Square Park at 6 p.m. Thursday. Americana act Shakey Graves and headlining indie-folk group Lord Huron fill the bill.
Although Elliot Root calls Nashville home, its members — drummer Sean Trukowski, bassist Justin Smith, keyboardist Melissa Mattey, guitarist Todd Bond and Krueger — with the exception of Bond, hail from places as far as Cleveland, Ohio, Wisconsin and Malaysia. Krueger explains they met through a series of acquaintances before collaborating on their first EP “er/ep” in 2014. It wasn’t until their second release, “II,” early this year that the band’s vision was fully realized, however.
Elliot Root has spent most of the past year away from the local music scene in support of their latest EP, “Thoughts From Yesterday,” which was released in May. The group has since opened for the likes of Zac Brown Band and Michael Franti and Spearhead.
Krueger says the band is eager to take the stage in a familiar setting, as well as catch a few other performances in the coming weeks, including local acts J. Roddy Walston & the Business and rockers Moon Taxi.
“We fit in (with Nashville) because we’ve taken a little bit from many different influences that the city has to offer and have applied it as honestly as possible to the music,” Krueger said. “I think that’s what’s great about Nashville … there is a diversity, and there is an understanding of all of the music from the people who live here.”
If you go:
Live On the Green kicks off Thursday at Public Square Park (1 Public Square). Gates open at 5 p.m., and music will run from 6-11 p.m. For the full season’s schedule, visit www.liveonthegreen.com
This article was published in cooperation with the Seigenthaler News Service. To see the version of this article that ran in The Tennessean, click here.
For our full archive of Live on the Green coverage, click here.
Follow Dylan Skye Aycock on Twitter at @dylskye.
Follow us at www.mtsusidelines.com, on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines and on Twitter/Instagram at @Sidelines_Life.
To contact Lifestyles editor Rhiannon Gilbert, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com.
