Mallory Graham and Scott Tyler are a musical duo recording under the name the Rough & Tumble. They declined to identify which one was rough and which one tumble, but I have my suspicions. Their latest album is a mouthful called “Hymns for My Atheist Sister & Her Friends to Sing Along To,” and they describe it as an album for the faithful, the faithless and the somewhere-in-between, in short, everyone is welcome to find something that resonates in the vinyl grooves, on the silver plastic or in the stream of cyberspace.
Graham is from western Pennsylvania and Tyler is from central California, and the pair have settled in New Hampshire for the time being. They have been professional musicians for a decade and are currently indie artists, yet they don’t envision a career change anytime soon. The Green Mountain State experience is chronicled in the second song in their mini-gig’s set-list, “Hallelujah of the Ordinary,” recorded right in their living room.
Mallory tells all about it: “We really lucked into the community we have here in this small town in New Hampshire. After a long winter, we left on a 4-month tour right when all of our friends and neighbours were starting to plant their gardens, and we were bemoaning that we wouldn’t be around to plant ours. Well, we got home and numerous friends had come over and planted us a garden – raspberry bushes, zinnias, herbs, peppers – and we were just so thankful for the way that things grow.”
Much like their latest album grows on you with repeated listens, it is still a departure from the full band experience of 2023’s “Only This Far,” stripped back as if they were changing the bed linens, the instrumentation limited to what Graham was permitted to have in her church growing up – piano, organ, guitar, and tambourine. More layers are peeled away as you will see in the video with Graham playing a variety of ukuleles and Tyler on Yamaha FSS acoustic guitar.
The songs on their album are about truth, about mystery, and most importantly about loving your neighbour. This message is at the forefront of the vocally expansive opening track and first single “Love Them Too,” which is also the closing track on the mini-gig. There is a backstory to be told.
“This song was written on the 4th of July in Indiana. We had been feeling a little ‘doomsy’ after watching the presidential debate and were concerned about the upcoming election, and then we played this beautiful show where we looked out at an audience who would probably not all vote the same but were so happy to be with each other. It gave us a real vision for what America could look like. Now that the election is over, we are beginning to recognise that the greatest way we can resist fascism is to love our neighbours. All of them. With no qualifiers or excuses.”
That thought is worth a hearty “amen” to putting America’s divisive years in the rear view and coming together for the benefit of all citizens. As the song goes: “Pick your neighbour, pick your neighbour’s neighbour Pick their next-door neighbour– hell, pick a stranger.”
But what’s up with Mallory’s atheist sister, and why is the Rough & Tumble’s new album dedicated to her and her friends? Happily, the answer comes as soon as you press play and begin the video. In case you’d care to have a little insight first, well, here is what they had to say.
“A few years ago, Mallory’s atheist sister won an award for Atheist Activist of the Year for her work in Florida, speaking out against laws that would violate the separation of Church and State. We were terribly proud of her and it got us thinking about the ways in which belief spurs us forward to love people more and better and the ways belief can be hijacked for hate.”
As some guy named Ripley once wrote, believe it or not, this duo has made a record that is neither dogma nor doctrine, for the religious or the irreligious, for the good the bad and the in between. Everybody’s welcome because, “It don’t much matter what you think, But only about what you bring, And the harmony you choose to sing.”
If you like what you hear…rather, after you like what you hear, you can find out more about The Rough & Tumble (or read Mallory’s engrossing blog) on their website or Bandcamp page.
