Channing and Quinn Go West

Quirky folk-pop duo Channing and Quinn will make an appearance in the town of their musical origin for a show at Boone Saloon this Saturday, with Swift Science and Underhill Rose, before they trek out to the western states for the first time.

The Nashville-based group consists of vocalist and Boone native Channing Lee, as well as Appalachian State University alumnus Quinn Mathews, who plays everything from guitar to accordion to ukulele.

“I would say that it is definitely quirky,” Lee said. “I mean, there’s tap dancing and lots of different instruments, so it definitely has the whimsy and quirkiness to it, but I feel like a lot of the actual content of the songs are a little bit deeper than the sound of the song.”

With only two members both on stage and recording in the studio, Mathews said they’re able to fill the sound of each track so that is sounds like a full band is playing, including working around the absence of a designated drummer.

“Well, if you hire a drummer, they’re going to bring a drum set, and they play the full drum set, and they fill it all out like that, and it’s great,” Mathews said. “But instead, we put in hand claps or snaps or we use Channing’s vocals to kind of make a percussion sound, and maybe we’ll use the high hats, just hit the cymbals here and there. The next thing you know, it’s filled out with this percussion element of drums just with the sounds that Channing and I have created with a simple clap or a snap or something like that.”

The group dropped its first full-length album, titled “Underneath the Big Striped Tent,” which released in March of this year. Since its release, Channing and Quinn have been on the road promoting something Mathews said he and Lee are very proud of.

“The past three or four months have just been solid, touring from town to town,” he said.

In addition to making their first appearance at Boone Saloon in quite some time, Channing and Quinn are set to embark on their first West Coast tour to promote the new album and to introduce themselves to the rest of the country.

“It definitely is overwhelming and scary, but it’s really exciting, too,” Lee said. “We do tour a lot in the Southeast and the East Coast, and we’ve been trying to think of a way forever to get out to the West Coast, and it’s just a huge venture.”

The tour will start off in the Michigan and Wisconsin area, before it loops to big cities like Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Ore., in the northwest. The tour then heads south through California to Arizona and Texas, before they make their way back home in September, where Mathews said they will probably start working on their next recordings.

But before the change in tour scenery and locations occurs, Lee and Mathews both said they’re going to enjoy coming back to Boone to play a show for friends – and for Lee, family.

“I just want everyone to know that it’s going to be a party,” Lee said. “We’re going to have a really good time, and there will be lots of music and dancing, and people just need to come out and support music.”

Cover charge for the 10 p.m. show Saturday is $5, and only those 21 and older will be admitted.
For more information on Channing and Quinn, visit http://www.channingandquinn.com or their Facebook page.