When Christopher Malpass says he and his brother, Taylor, admire classic country music, he’s not just paying lip service to a handful of artists or songs; he’s pledging allegiance to an entire musical way of life.
Sporting sideburns and slicked-back pompadours even Conway Twitty would envy, the North Carolina-based duo look like they’ve just stepped out of a vacuum-tube-powered time machine fresh from 1956. Their songs sound so authentically traditional that it’s easy to imagine they’ve spent the last half-century sandwiched between Jimmie Rodgers and George Jones in a Rock-Ola jukebox.
But the Malpass Brothers’ similarity to artists like Ernest Tubb and Faron Young isn’t just about a sound, and it’s not a costume they step out of when they unplug. Honoring the country tradition, they say, is about more than playing on nostalgia; it’s a sincere attempt to preserve and rekindle a style of music that was as honest as it was emotionally affecting.
“I can’t turn on the radio and listen to modern country music, myself, and feel anything,” Christopher says. “I don’t feel the emotion or the heartache or the happiness that I do when I listen to a three- or four-chord traditional-style country song that has a story to it.
“When I go to church, I want to either leave feeling either really good or like my toes have been stepped on. That’s kinda how I feel about my country music as well. I want to feel something when I listen to it.”