Styrofoam Winos

A decade ago, three employees of JJ’s Market and Cafe in Nashville, TN became Styrofoam Winos. Lou Turner, Trevor Nikrant, and Joe Kenkel bonded over their mutual adoration for Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, and dollar bin country records. Styrofoam Winos have always gone with the flow, which makes Any River an apt title for their new album, the follow-up to 2024's Real Time. Their playful approach is bolstered by the chops of seasoned musicians who have performed many hundreds of concerts, both together and as touring members of Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, MJ Lenderman, and as solo artists. They recorded in Louisville—their first album made outside of Nashville—with Roadhouse bandmate and Equipment Pointed Ankh mastermind Jim Marlowe. Styrofoam Winos manage to strike a perfect balance between reverence and irreverence for the musical traditions they’re working within. Their knowledge of the canon is scholarly, but such knowledge is always followed by a wink. It’s the music of experienced shapeshifters, defying easy categorization while remaining instantly recognisable. Being a fan of the Winos is not dissimilar to being a sports fan. Half the fun of it is understanding –with increasingly greater nuance– the subtleties of each member’s contribution, then trying to predict how these forces will meet to perform miracles. https://styrofoamwinos.bandcamp.com/