Dirty Guv'nahs' James Trimble talks breaking up and breaking out of 'local band' Label

• Carrie Jo Pinckard
• The Dirty Guv'nahs

?
The Dirty Guv’nahs have spent almost a decade performing together, taking their Southern rock on the road to college towns, festivals, and cities across the country while maintaining a strong and supportive following in their hometown of Knoxville, Tenn. For six guys who didn’t ever plan on being professional musicians, it’s been a pretty stellar run — and they’ve decided to go out with a bang. After mutually agreeing that disbanding would be best for the Guvs, the group announced a farewell tour hitting the cities that have welcomed them over the years. Frontman James Trimble checked in before the tour swings through Georgia for stops at Terminal West on Thurs., Aug. 27, and Athens on Sat., Aug. 29.

What brought you to decide that this round of shows would be the last for the Dirty Guv’nahs?
We’ve had the absolute adventure of our lives. It’s been a blast, but there’s just so much that goes into having a life that is always on the road. It’s hard when it comes down to having a family and trying to maintain friendships and stuff with pals in your hometown. For us, we had just reached a point where it felt like the right time to say, ‘This has been amazing, but it’s time to say goodbye.’ It probably sounds bizarre, but there’s no fighting — everybody’s still friends in the band. We just kind of had to have a natural conversation.

Tell me a little bit about how Dirty Guvs got started.
Some of us were in graduate school, some of us were in undergrad. Our drummer was actually in high school, which is amazing. It was a pretty big age range between all of us, and in the first year we played maybe three shows; just for fun. If we had opportunities to open for somebody, we took them. It was fun.

The next year, we played maybe 10-12 shows. Somewhere along the first couple years, we started having people actually say, ‘Hey, I’m a big fan of what you’re doing.’ So we decide to spend more time on it. Luckily we all were in school and had the flexibility. We had some amazing opportunities through the years. We got to play at Bonnaroo twice — the second time we played there we got to kick off the festival. It was crazy. We played for a crowd of about 10,000 people. It was a total dream. We were able to organize a free concert in our hometown one time — we did a big concert down in Market Square, and 12,000 people came out. It was just totally, totally crazy. We got to record an album up in New York at Levon Helm’s studios before he passed away, in 2012. We got to play with legends like Zac Brown Band, Black Crowes, Grace Potter. We couldn’t be more thankful for the adventure that we’ve had. It makes sense for us to end it now.

? ? ?
The shows are selling out fast — you have a huge following in a lot of these cities, not just Knoxville. Is there any particular association that you have with Atlanta and Georgia, too?
Oh, gosh. As far as we’re concerned, outside of our hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, the state of Georgia is far and away our biggest fan base. Places like Atlanta and Athens and Macon, those are really some of our favorite places to play. I guess it’s the brand of Southern rock that we play — it’s just always seemed to connect best with folks in Georgia. Close behind, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina. But the state of Georgia has really been there for us, honestly stronger than anybody through the years, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Is there anything special that you’re planning for this tour as you head into these final dates?
Absolutely. You know, normally when you do a big tour you try to give it a name; It’s usually connected to a new album release. For the farewell tour, there’s not a release — we’re not even releasing a new EP or anything like that. It’s gonna be a really special night because we’re going to play a lot of really old songs that we haven’t played in years. We had a rehearsal last week, and I was even having to look up lyrics to our own songs because I hadn’t played them in so long. We’re trying to basically pick out the best of the best from the last nine years. We’re going to make the shows a little bit different each night — we know a lot of people are going to come to two or three of the shows, and we want to make sure that they’re all really special.

You made a music career in Knoxville despite Nashville, a city known for its music industry opportunities, being so close by. Why stay in Knoxville?
Knoxville is a small city, but it’s got a really strong music scene. It’s clearly not going to be like something in Nashville, but for the size that it is there’s a lot of great bands and there’s a lot of great venues. There are people that want bands to succeed, and that’s a big deal. If you get down to it, when our band started, we would’ve disappeared within months if we’d started in a place like Nashville. The truth is that when we started, we were not a professional-level band. That’s just not who we are — we’re not studio musicians that put together a supergroup. We’re not all professionally trained from some school. We’re just guys who love music, and we’ve been blessed with this opportunity to somehow make money from it for the last nine years which is just crazy.

Is this really it, or is there a chance the band will continue to perform one-offs in the future?
You know, the truth is that anything is possible. What’s happening next is that we’re all still going to stay in Knoxville — we know that. Music, once you start making it, you’re never going to stop; I’m never going to stop writing music. But I’m not going to be able to dedicate five days a week to it anymore, so it’s going to look a whole lot different than it has in the past. There are some guys in the band that are wanting to start another band, so that’s a really exciting thing as well. They’re trying to figure out how much that band will tour, and what that will look like and whether it will be as much touring as what we did. People have different kinds of plans for what’s next. It’s kind of a wait-and-see. For now, it’s certainly a farewell.

?
An evening with the Dirty Guv'nahs. $15 SOLD OUT. 8:30 P.M. Terminal West, 887 West Marietta, Studio C. 404-876-5566. www.terminalwestatl.com.