Duet country is on its way back with its latest offering Chaparelle, made up of Zella Day, Jesse Woods and Beau Bedford. The alluring Texas-based trio’s debut album Western Pleasure, released 18th April, is a fabulous blend of country standards, a little RocknRoll, and a lot of Austin vintage. Think George and Tammy, Gram and Emmylou, Nancy and Lee, and then throw in some War and a dash of Kurt Vile. We spoke to two thirds of Chaparelle, Zella and Jesse, on the eve of their album release about some of their firsts.
First song we ever wrote:
Zella: Together? ‘Bleeding Hearts?’
Jesse: Yeah, ‘Bleeding Hearts’ was the first one in our first writing session, really trying to write a country standard, which, you know, is kinda the hardest thing to do. We knew we didn’t want to make a whole record of that kind of ballad standard, but we knew if we could do that well then the rest would kind of fall in.
Zella: It’s typical, like Jesse said, country standard, they’re incredibly simple and incredibly heart wrenching. At least the good ones are.
First live performance:
Jesse: I think it was at El Rey Motel [El Rey Court] in Santa Fe? We did our first run of shows starting in Santa Fe and then up to Montana and Wyoming and back to Colorado, so kind of like a mountain tour. A friend of ours has this motel in Santa Fe that we got to stay in for free as long as we played a show in their little bar area, and it was a really fun little rowdy show.
First concert:
Zella: My first concert, like big concert was a Backstreet Boys concert with this band B*Witched opening. I actually was more of a fan of B*Witched. [I declared my love for them as a kid] I did too, so underrated, nobody knows who they are and I’m just like ‘hey boy sitting in a tree.’ Were they big in the UK? [Oh, yes]
Jesse: My first concert probably was Alan Jackson at the Houston Rodeo.
Zella: That’s so cool, I didn’t even know that.
Jesse: I grew up in Houston and the Houston Rodeo is one of the biggest rodeos in the world and its two weeks, and back then it was all country acts. Yeah, probably the Houston Rodeo show, and it was in the old Astrodome that I loved going to.
First official festival:
Zella: Under the Big Sky Festival in Montana.
Jesse: About a year and a half ago?
Zella: Yeah.
Jesse: Think that was the first festival.
Zella: Beau Bedford, who sadly couldn’t make the call, he’s feeling under the weather, he had a friend, the guy who started this festival up in Montana called Under the Big Sky and it’s beautiful, it’s exactly how it sounds. Just out on grasslands, meadows and horses and the whole thing is country and Americana acts. It was fun, but I mean the festival circuit, people definitely aren’t showing up to your stage if they don’t know who you are. We didn’t have any music out at the time, so it was sort of awkward, but we were delighted to be there.
First headlining show:
Zella: The Santa Fe one was the first headlining show really. It had our name on the marquee. They do have cool acts come through town, and the audience that go there they’re locals that are interested in good music and discovering good music at the motel, so it was our first headlining show. Then after, we did a run with the promoter folkYeah! They book shows on the West Coast and we did a run with them, like our first headlining tour where we played Pioneer Towns. We did Pappy and Harriet’s in Joshua Tree, we did Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara.
Jesse: And Venice Beach.
First rodeo:
Zella: My first rodeo was in Pine Top [Arizona, where Zella is originally from], I used to do gymkhanas, so I would do barrel racing on horses, I started doing that when I was about ten.
Jesse: They had a rodeo actually at my high school.
Zella: [giggles] Texas! That’s awesome.
Jesse: Growing up outside of Houston, FFA and rodeo is a big thing. So, probably in junior high, going to the local rodeo just at the high school.
Western Pleasure by Chaparelle is out now. Learn more about the album in our interview with the band here.
