A rock n’ roll mouth and a poet’s heart is an apt way to describe the music of Nathan Singleton, singer and guitarist for the Austin, Texas band The Sideshow Tragedy. His music is rooted in Delta Blues, thick with National steel guitar, and his lyrics and ideas are intriguing – at times narrative and straightforward, other times more dreamlike and surreal. The band finds meaning and inspiration while on the road and maintains a busy regional and national touring schedule. With their catalog of diverse original songs spread over three albums, the band has the ability to really connect with their audience and tailor their live sets to a particular venue’s vibe or setting. They have proven themselves capable of performing disarmingly quiet, hypnotic acoustic sets for listening rooms and restaurants as well as explosive rock n’ roll shows demanded by rowdier crowds.

While each of their self-released studio albums received praise from critics, the group is still best recognized as a phenomenal live band. The Sideshow Tragedy burns up stages with blues-amaged garage rock that can ignite crowds into a raucous frenzy. Nathan commands the stage with his impressive slide guitar playing and is quite at home as the feverish front man that can wail and sing out his every emotion. He makes use of the whole stage and sometimes blurs the line between where the stage ends and the audience begins. Conversely, the band can get whisper-quiet, bringing warmth and feeling to their more dialed-down shows; in these situations, the songs develop different personas and add even more dimension to the band.

“I’m influenced by Chris Whitley, and I kind of blend his approach of playing National guitars with that really loose Keith Richards/Johnny Thunders rhythm guitar style…I’m trying to marry blues and punk aesthetics with that of songwriters like Leonard Cohen or Townes Van Zandt,” says Singleton. It’s in these dichotomies and contradictions that The Sideshow Tragedy finds its strength and identity – by embracing the sensibilities of both the songwriting troubadour and the virulent rocker. It would be misleading to simply call them a rock or americana or punk band; cliché or not, the band really supersedes simple genre labeling. And it’s this combination of gutsy, gritty playing and literate, evocative songwriting that makes The Sideshow Tragedy’s genre-bending music so infectious and unique.