Won’t you be my Neighbors?

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

Growing up in Memphis, Tenn., and later moving to Nashville, Drew Holcomb has been steeped in regional musical traditions his whole life. 

“I grew up like a lot of kids in the ’90s, listening to rock radio and not paying much attention to the musical history of my town,” Holcomb told the Reader. “When I moved to Nashville after college, I was just blown away by the magnet of talent that the town has.”

It was among this pool of talent that Drew Holcomb met his wife and connected with future bandmates Nathan Dugger and Rich Brinsfield, as well as Ian Miller and Will Sayles. Together, the five musicians would form Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, so named because everyone lived in the same zip code. 

The band developed a sound that lives comfortably between genres, incorporating elements of Americana, alternative rock, indie folk and even a dash of alt-country.

Twenty years later, the five-piece has dropped nine studio albums, along with a handful of side projects, EPs and holiday songs along the way.

Holcomb’s latest album, Strangers No More, dropped in 2023. Songs like “Find Your People” and “Dance With Everybody” captured the joy — and disorientation — of post-pandemic life.

“My writing coming out of the pandemic was very slow at the beginning,” Holcomb said. “Despite all the tragedies we went through during that time, a lot of good self-reflection came out of it, too. I have three children and I’d been touring and traveling for 16 years at that point, so it was the first time I was home a lot.”

The recording process was so prolific — with the band laying down 24 tracks in just two weeks in the studio — that Holcomb said the next album will actually be a Strangers No More Vol. 2, scheduled to release in September.

“That particular record spans a lot of genres for us,” Holcomb said. “We allowed ourselves to breathe musically and not create too many rules.”

Holcomb said many of the themes of his songs center on the togetherness we feel with our loved ones, especially during hard times.

“It’s all about finding your people,” he said. “I just wrote it about my friends. We can stand inside the weirdness of this bizarre and unprecedented cultural season we find ourselves perpetually in now.”

For Holcomb, music remains a uniting force. 

“We need music to be something that reminds us of each others’ humanity,” he said. “I think music has the capacity to bring people together.”

Holcomb recalled one night a year after the pandemic when he was playing with country music legend Willie Nelson in South Carolina.

“In the front row, there was a couple head-to-toe in Trump MAGA gear sitting right next to a lesbian couple head-to-toe in rainbow gear. Both couples were singing along with every word to Willie’s songs,” he said. “That’s the power of music. Regardless of your point of view, a song can speak to you.”

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors will play the Festival at Sandpoint with The National Parks on Sunday, July 28, with gates opening at 6 p.m. and the show starting at 7:15 p.m. Visit festivalatsandpoint.org to buy tickets and listen at drewholcomb.com.