On Monday night, I had the privilege of attending a live studio recording of the band Magnolia Bayou, thanks to Encore Alabama. Encore Alabama is a student operated music television show from the Journalism and Creative Media department in the College of Communications and the UA Center for Public Television. Magnolia Bayou is an up-and-coming rock band from Gulfport, Mississippi with a dash of blues and soul influence from the south. The band, which boasts career highlights such as opening for Eli Young Band, a Grammy-nominated group, performed a few of their original songs from their album for the studio audience. Magnolia Bayou is comprised of front runner, vocalist, and guitarist Andrew Fulton, lead guitarist Dylan Palmiero, Josh Estes on bass, and Cedric Feazell on drums.

At the Encore Alabama performance, the band spoke about their recording process for their self-titled first album, which was released late last year. Their entirely self funded album was recorded in New Orleans, Louisiana, and front runner Andrew Fulton said that the city influenced the album, as they spent a lot of time hanging around the city, especially late at night, and “over time the sounds and the vibes of the city began leaking into the music.” It took the band about a year to record the entirety of the 8 track long album, due in part to the fact that the album was fully self funded. “We would record two songs, take some time, go on the road, do a few shows, save up, go back and record more songs. We were taking major pay cuts at this time”, said Fulton. The band sounds very similar live as they do on their album, which can be a major feat for artists, as many sound completely different live. When asked about how they perfect their sound both live and in recorded audio, they said they “record the old fashioned way, and sing through the full song each time instead of recording take by take or chorus by chorus”. The album was done completely live, the group played each song all the way through until they found a take that they loved. The band also commits to a six nights a week practice schedule, usually around 3 to 4 hours per night!

A song where the band’s dedication, hard-work, and practice really pays off is “Long Damn Ride”. At Encore Alabama, Andrew Fulton offered the audience the exclusive backstory of the song. The lyrics are about a long drive, and in the beginning of the song, the lyrics even state “Pennsylvania is where I’m from”, which can confuse some listeners, since the band’s members are all from Mississippi. The song is actually about a best friend of some of the members of Magnolia Bayou, a friend from Pennsylvania. When speaking about the origins of the song, Fulton explained that “It’s a twenty four hour drive straight through, and we were getting particularly drunk on a bottle of Jameson one night and listening to some records and I asked him ‘man do ever get tired of making that drive?’ and in a very drunken stupor he goes, ‘well it’s a long drive but it gets shorter every time I make it’ and to me it was like a bolt of lightning came out of the sky and it’s a damn good line and I knew I wanted to write that song.”

To promote the album and expand their fan base, Magnolia Bayou is headed out on tour this year. When asked about preparing for tour life and going on the road, the band said the most important thing for them is “staying healthy, even when the most accessible thing is fast food” and that they usually will go to Walmart and stock up on healthy groceries and snacks for the road. The band also loves to do things to get in the right head space on the road, such as yoga and even meditation! The band has tour dates throughout Mississippi and Alabama coming up between March 1st and June 1st, for more information on these dates and locations, visit the band’s website at www.magnoliabayou.com!

‘Magnolia Bayou’ is available on all streaming platforms.