Dubbed “Acid Americana,” Rodeo Mouth is an eclectic alt-country rock n’ roll band based in
Nashville, Tennessee, consisting of songwriter Paul Howard (vocals, rhythm guitar), Emmett
Rozelle (lead guitar), Anthony Fili (bass), and Dany Turcios (drums). What started out as
Howard reclusively writing off-color folk songs and occasionally playing out as a solo performer
would eventually evolve into wrangling old friends to join in on the fun and bring the songs to
life.
Rodeo Mouth’s raucous debut single and live fan favorite, “Sunset Blues Revisited,” hit
streaming in May 2024. It was produced in Nashville by multi-instrumentalist Duncan Shea
(Music Band, Those Darlins, Becca Mancari), and mixed and mastered at The Bomb Shelter
(Alabama Shakes, Hurray For The Riff Raff) in East Nashville.
With the bones of their second single, “Fanny’s Farmhouse,” recorded again with Shea, the
boys went back to the studio in October of 2024 to flesh it out along with several other original
tracks. “Fanny’s Farmhouse” was released in November 2024, followed shortly after by another
seasonal number, their macabre romp “Cowboy Cannibal.” Both tracks caught the ear of DJ
Ana Lee at WMOT Roots Radio here in Nashville, to which they each saw airplay on The Local
Brew.
Their rollicking desert highway single, “Leaving For Phoenix,” released in March 2025. The
track features former George Jones and Bellamy Brothers pedal steel guitarist Van Coffey
and Irish songbird Neve Cunnane on background vocals. On Halloween eve 2025, they released
their single, the deranged drunken cowboy number, “There’s a Boot in My Wallet.”
Rodeo Mouth’s songs are highly original and refreshingly offbeat in nature, with lyrics filled
with tongue-in-cheek charm, wit, and irreverent subject matter. The band’s style bounces
between roots rock n’ roll, alt-country, and Cosmic Americana, with songs chock full of playful,
nostalgic, and satirical elements.
With Howard and Fili growing up together in Geneva, NY, and befriending fellow Upstate New
Yorker Rozelle some eight or nine years ago, Rodeo Mouth’s chemistry is natural and organic. It
exemplifies simply having fun with each other both on stage and in studio, and that’s felt within
their music. Each member has been steeped in various projects in the Nashville scene for about a
decade, but the time finally came to put other bullshit aside for this supergroup.
Howard is also the founder and editor of the music blog Music Mecca, having published over
2,000 articles in the past eight years, mostly surrounding non-mainstream artists and events in
Nashville, which has strengthened his ties to the city and industry.
Rodeo Mouth has regularly performed all over Nashville the past several years at staple venues
like The 5 Spot, The Basement, The East Room, Acme Feed & Seed, City Winery, Brown’s
Diner, King’s Whiskey Room, The Cobra, The Villager Tavern and more. In the summer of
2025, the band did a northeast run playing in New Jersey, and was one of the headliners at the
Geneva, New York music festival Drumstock.
