Since forming in 2010, Los Angeles band The Americans have become rock 'n' roll favorites in their hometown and earned the "Orange County's Best Rockabilly Band" accolade in 2014. They've backed up artists like Nick Cave, Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart and recently toured Colorado with Ryan Bingham.
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The band has a new album, "I'll Be Yours," out this winter. They previewed a few songs from the new record in our studio and spoke with Alisha Sweeney about appearing in the PBS documentary "American Epic" with artists like Beck and Elton John, their love for traditional American music and how they've collaborated with a number of notable musicians.
Stream the session above. Read interview highlights below.
Singer and guitarist Patrick Ferris on the Los Angeles music scene:
"There are some great bands in L.A. There are some great bands doing traditional music and there are some great bands kind of pushing the boundaries in rock 'n' roll music."
Ferris on working on the documentary "American Epic":
"We got involved early on because of our early interest in that music. That's how we all met originally. Our interest in string band music and country blues.
"And that's what the film's about. It's about the first what they called 'commercial field recordings.' It's the first time that record labels sent teams down into areas that didn't have recording studios. They set up ad hoc studios and they made commercial recordings for sale. It exploded into basically became everything we now know as popular American music."
Songs performed:
- "Nevada"
- "Last Chance"
- "Hooky"
"Last Chance"
"Hooky"
