Meet Thomas Wynn and the Believers, an American band with a striking new organic rock record about building a better life, a life you really believe in. Named #1 Rock Band and #1 Country/Folk Band in the city for seven consecutive years by the Orlando Weekly, Thomas Wynn and the Believers are breaking beyond the Southern rock scene with the release of their new album, Wade Waist Deep, their Mascot Label Group debut, due for world-wide release on Friday, May 19.
Wade Waist Deep is packed with the facts that make American music timeless—the deep Southern heat of the guitars, the complex, pulsing rhythms, and the male-female vocal harmonies that sound like only a brother and sister can. Breathtakingly in-sync with his vocalist sister, Olivia Wynn Roche, Thomas Wynn sings about overcoming fear to become the person you were meant to be. Wynn, who fell in love with The Band’s first album Music from Big Pink in his early teens, brings classic country rock and soul into the new century with tunes that evoke the best of CSNY, Levon Helm, and John Prine.
PRE-ORDER WADE WAIST DEEP HERE
So who, and what, are The Believers? They’re musicians united by a common belief in the power of these remarkable songs.
Growing up in Orlando, Wynn played guitar and bass in church with his brother, while sister Olivia sang in the choir. Family and Bible study gave rhythm to their lives. “Our parents and our church were certain,” says Olivia, who participated in the Orlando Deanery Girls Choir, where she received vocal training and sang in cathedrals. “My favourite part was watching my dad [the original drummer of the legendary 70’s country band Cowboy] listening,” remembers Olivia. “I think he was trying to pick out my voice.” So the drummer once signed to Capricorn Records (Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker Band, etc.), now a family man, sat quietly in church and heard in his children the new voices of Southern rock.
Olivia Wynn Roche works meticulously to make her vocal harmonies so hauntingly correct that they’re startling to hear. Colin Daniel Fei plays that vintage Hammond organ that can take you to church or send you straight to hell. Chris “Bell” Antemesaris wails wildly on blues harmonica. David Wagner and Ryan Miranda hold down the deep grooves on bass and drums, respectively.
The band came together naturally. All of The Believers are regulars in the Orlando music scene who admired Wynn’s work and wanted to help him take it farther. From Antemesaris, who just kept on showing up at Wynn’s gigs, asking, “Can I sit in on a few?” to Wagner, who started out as a fan of The Believers, declaring “I want to be involved in this somehow or other,” Wynn has earned the band he has now.
With two previous albums and several tours already under their belt, Thomas Wynn and The Believers have shared the stage with the likes of Cheap Trick, Gov’t Mule, Medeski, Martin & Wood, SIMO, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Drive-By Truckers, and more. Many have already taken notice of the emotional energy and power of Thomas Wynn and The Believers’ live show.
“Maybe the best band we’ve ever had on that stage,” says the Albany Herald. “One of the newest, brightest, tightest, smoothest, most energetic bands to come through,” says Georgia Music Hall of Famer Alan Walden. “One of the most exciting new bands in Florida,” says WMNF 88.5 FM. “Folks stood, jaws dropped…shook their heads, and said, ‘Damn. Can’t remember the last time I was so impressed by a band I knew nothing about.’”
