500 Miles To Memphis

Cincinnati, Ohio serves as the home base for 500 Miles To Memphis, the group Ryan Malott launched in 2003 while handling vocals, songwriting, and guitar. Its moniker reflects the mileage between Malott’s birthplace and Elvis Presley’s Memphis residence. Personnel changes defined the band’s first years, so the 2005 self-titled debut was recorded by Malott, Jason Gallagher on guitar, Wade Owens on bass, and Lee Steele on drums. That album fused punk and country with noticeable drive and curiosity, an approach hardly unprecedented among punk acts revisiting roots traditions, yet Malott’s writing favored country phrasing over the current disillusionment common to most emo songwriters of his circle. A succession of players moved through the ranks until a steadier roster—Malott, veteran local musician David Rhodes Brown on lap steel and keyboards, Jeff Snyder on bass, Stephen Kuffner on guitar and vocals, Paul Patterson on fiddle, and Kevin Hogle on drums—delivered the first release to reach wider audiences, Sunshine In A Shot Glass.