Strange Americans play music for average Americans

By Steve Graham

They may call themselves Strange Americans, but this Denver band plays music for decidedly average, working-class Americans. They are known for anthemic rock songs played at long and energetic live shows.

“It’s blue-collar rock and roll that most people can relate to,” said singer Matt Hoffman.

It’s probably no accident it all sounds a little Springsteen-esque. Hoffman’s everyman rasp sounds a little like Bruce, and the first Strange Americans album cover even looks kind of like a cross between the covers for “Magic” and “Devils & Dust,” a pair of Springsteen albums released about a decade before the Strange Americans debut.

While they haven’t been around quite as long as The Boss, they have outlasted many other local bar bands. Strange Americans celebrated their 10th anniversary as a band this fall.

Their first show was in September 2009 at the Bulldog Bar on East Colfax. They have since spent a lot of time playing beloved live shows together. And when two core members were asked if they expect to play together for another decade, they quickly and succinctly just said “yeah.”

“We all live and breathe music, and we try to get that percentage of our lives to overlap as much as we can,” said Hoffman.

Surprisingly for a band so closely identified with guitars and roots rock, Strange Americans started on a synthesizer. Hoffman has been in bands since middle school, like the other members of Strange Americans, and studied music theory and composition in college.

By early 2009, he was writing new songs on a synth and itching to get back into a band. So he posted a Craigslist ad looking for a guitarist. Trent Nelson responded, which got the Strange Americans ball rolling.

“When I met Trent, it kind of clicked and it started there,” Hoffman said.

Nelson brought in his friend Murry Mercier on keyboards, and they found bassist Trevor Sinnard and drummer Michael John McKee through more Craigslist ads.

Hoffman said his original compositions were “more pop-rock,” but the band evolved into a rootsy Americana soundscape.

“There are elements of roots rock and classic rock, with some curveballs here and there sonically,” Nelson said, adding that his songwriting is inspired by creative genre-busting bands such as Wilco, My Morning Jacket and Radiohead.

Other alt-country influences such as Centro-Matic, Slobberbone and even early Lucero are more evident on the band’s three studio albums.

Hoffman blames another piece of Americana for the band name.

“We were attempting to name our band and we watched ‘Jeremiah Johnson’ and drank a bunch of whiskey and decided we would find out what our band name is,” he said.

After a long night of bourbon and a Robert Redford western, they decided on a temporary name from their long list of candidates.

“We said ‘we will call ourselves the Strange Americans for now,’ and it just stuck,” he said, laughing. “It was that or The Bearded Trees.”

Hoffman writes most of the songs with Nelson, who said the process “starts with us bouncing ideas off each other” through voice memos and a Dropbox folder. Then Hoffman and Nelson try to get together on Fridays to talk about music, play music and turn those ideas into basic songs, which are fleshed out and finalized with the full band — especially on stage.

“We’ve always been a live band,” Hoffman said. “We like to get into the music and be energetic with our performance.”

They have seen their audiences gradually grow over the decade, and they are moving up into the festival circuit.

“We put it all out there when we play. We try to show up and do our best job,” Nelson said.

Learn more about the band and upcoming gigs at strangeamericansmusic.com.

Steve Graham is a freelance writer and former newspaper editor who likes taking his two young boys biking, hiking and brewery-hopping in northern Colorado.