The New Folk Initiative is delighted to offer an exclusive preview of a new video by Bobtown. They’re a New York-based, but quintessentially Americana band. Katherine Etzel hails from Fort Dodge, Iowa (whence their name derives), Jen McDearman from Memphis, and KarenDahlstrom from Boise, Idaho. Only guitarist Alan Lee Backer, a Brooklyn native, is homegrown. They’ve been among my favorite groups for almost a decade.
On their new album, Chasing the Sun, the three women share vocals, as well as writing credits on every song but one. That last is a cover of a classic Tom Petty song, “American Girl.” As with their treatment of “Don’t Fear the Reaper” on their 2012 album, Trouble I Wrought, they reimagine the song and make it more intimate and wholly their own – in short, quintessentially Americana!