The CrumbSnatchers’ Bad Luck Pays Off on Debut Album

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It sounds like a scene from a National Lampoon movie—500 college kids, crammed into a backyard in Fort Sanders in late winter, are waiting for the CrumbSnatchers to start playing, but the band’s bass player, Sam Burchfield, is still looking for a place to park.

“He got frustrated and left,” says CrumbSnatchers guitarist and singer Sam “Guetts” Guetterman. “We were like, ‘What do we do?’ It’s the biggest house party I’ve ever played.”

As luck would have it, J. Niles Haury, the bass player for local jam/R&B band Grandpa’s Stash, was in the crowd and offered his services. After a quick consultation, he joined the rest of the CrumbSnatchers—Guetterman, guitarist Philip Mosteller, and drummer Rylan Bledsoe—on stage.

“In between songs, I’d lean over and be like, ‘It goes like this,’” Guetterman says. “Thank goodness the cops shut it down after five songs, because we’d played the five simplest songs we had. The cops came and I was like, ‘Oh, boo!’ But inside I was like, ‘Thank god they showed up!’ That’s the only time I’ve ever said that sentence to myself.”

That show was one of several recent turning points for the CrumbSnatchers, a scrappy local indie/punk band known for its riotous live shows and intricate musicianship. The band finished recording its first album, Big House, earlier this year. Burchfield, whom Guetterman describes as “an awesome bass player and a big part of what our sound was,” would never return, leaving Haury as an interim bassist for the band’s upcoming CD release show and a two-week June tour through Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania that will end with four shows in New York.

“There are certain things that Sam did, certain nuances, that made him over-the-top good,” Guetterman says. “But Niles’ style is just different. As long as everything’s tight and you play together, that’s what’s important. His attitude has been great. But going on this tour is a stretch for him, so I don’t know if he’ll want to do things like that in the future.”

Big House promises to be a revelation. The CrumbSnatchers released an EP, Reckless Breakfast, in 2014; it was the first time any of them had spent significant time in a studio, and it shows—the band’s live energy translates onto disc, but the sound quality is basic. Big House, on the other hand, recorded with the Kelly brothers at Knoxville’s Famous London Recording Studio, demonstrates a (slightly) bigger budget and more studio experience. The group’s big shout-along choruses and tight-knit ensemble playing come together without sacrificing the immediacy of the band’s live performance.

“We didn’t do that many overdubs,” Guetterman says. “I think I can count on one hand the things that wouldn’t be done live—there’s one track that has a bass harmonica in it, but you don’t know it’s there. There’s a piano overdub on a song, a couple of things like that.”

The band started planning for Big House more than a year ago. They launched a Kickstarter campaign in early 2015 to raise $6,000 for studio time and CD production, but the effort fell short. Instead of trying another round of crowdfunding, Guetterman just got a second job.

“I just decided I’ll work hard for it and we’ll do it that way,” he says. “Because the money’s been coming in that way, that’s why it’s taken so long. We were only able to be in there every so often. But I think it may be that it turned out better. We’ve written a lot of songs that are on the album that wouldn’t be, and it’s because we had time. We recorded 18 tracks total, and there are 13 on the album. So that was nice, to be able to take the weak links out, and that probably wouldn’t have happened if we’d gotten the money all at once and recorded what we had at the time. I’m really happy about it, and I think I will be happy about it later.”

Still, there’s a little uncertainty in the CrumbSnatchers’ future. The loss of a founding member and Haury’s tentative position in the lineup mean that the band going out to support Big House—in Knoxville and on the road—isn’t quite the same one that made the record.

“It’s just going to be what it’s going to be,” Guetterman says. “It may turn out to be better. I may end up having more fun with whoever ends up running with us. I’m not worried about it. It’s going to be fine, whatever happens.”

The CrumbSnatchers celebrate the release of Big House at Scruffy City Hall (32 Market Square) on Friday, May 20, at 10 p.m. Baby Baby and the Tom Pappas Collection open the show. 

Senior Editor Matthew Everett manages the Knoxville Mercury's arts & entertainment section, including the comprehensive calendar section—Knoxville’s go-to guide for everything worth doing in the area. You can reach Matthew at matthew@knoxmercury.com.

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