Portland alt-country band Jenny Don’t and the Spurs releases fourth album

Jenny Don’t and the Spurs started more than a decade ago as a side project for a few members of Portland’s punk scene who were looking to explore a new sound. Since then, they’ve become known for their punk-tinged country style, as well as their eccentric outfits and high-energy live shows.

Founding members Jenny Don’t and Kelly Halliburton join us to talk about the band’s journey and its upcoming album, “Broken Hearted Blue.”

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Jenny Don’t and the Spurs started more than a decade ago as a kind of side project for a few members of Portland’s punk scene who were looking to explore a new sound. They are no longer a side gig. They are the main hustle for a quartet that’s become known for their punk-tinged country style as well as their rhinestone-bedazzled outfits and their high energy live shows. Founding members, Jenny Don’t, the singer and rhythm guitarist, and Kelly Halliburton, who plays bass and just called himself the band husband, join us now to talk about the band’s journey and their upcoming album, “Broken Hearted Blue.” It is great to have both of you on the show.

Jenny Don’t: Thank you for having us.

Kelly Halliburton: Thanks. Great to be here.

Miller: Let’s start with part, the first half or so, of a song from the new album. We are going to hear “Unlucky Love.”

[”Unlucky Love” by Jenny Don’t and the Spurs playing]

Miller: That is “Unlucky Love” from the new Jenny Don’t and the Spurs album, “Broken Hearted Blue,” which is coming out in just a couple of weeks. Jenny, first, what kind of music did you listen to growing up?

Don’t: Growing up, I actually listened to a lot of western music. I used to ride horses with my mom. I used to rodeo, and she was a big Patsy Cline fan. I think Patsy Cline is really what spurred my interest in singing. I just, I loved it – Patsy Cline and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Miller: So some classic rock and some classic country mixed together.

Don’t: Yeah, definitely.

Miller: But then you went into punk.

Don’t: Yeah.

Miller: What happened?

Don’t: I initially started a synth-rock band in Bellingham, Washington. I played keyboards. Then I decided to move to Portland to play music and start a band. It was a bigger music scene than in Bellingham. And I met Sam Henry, who was the previous Spurs drummer. He had a real rock and roll background. I met bassist Kelly Halliburton. And I was just thrown into the punk scene here. I started diving in, and that’s what I wanted to do. Just loud, fast, high energy.

Miller: We could talk about some of the similarities there because maybe we can make too much of a big deal about the differences. But Kelly, first, what about you? I mean, what were your early musical influences?

Halliburton: Well, my early musical influences were kind of across the board. I grew up in a musical family, pretty much. We all played an instrument, most of us. I was a product of the ‘80s punk rock and metal scene, and that pretty much informed my musical life for most of my life until I somehow ended up in a country western band. [Laughter] And of course punk and country, in popular culture, are sort of natural enemies – cats and dogs. But I would say they share more cultural roots than differences in a lot of ways.

Miller: So, what do you think is shared?

Halliburton: I think they both kind of have a shared sense of blue collar, working class, expression. A lot of the early country music was created by people, poor, working … The Bakersfield sound, those were oil workers that had migrated west during the depression and moved out from the dust bowl and brought a lot of their musical culture with them. The same as a lot of punk rock and rock and roll sort of comes from those same emotional wellsprings and that strata of society.

Miller: It’s possible that those connections are less obvious now, if when people hear country they think of the slick, highly produced version of country, that’s maybe more like pop, that comes out of Nashville now.

Don’t: Exactly. Yeah. I feel like the early days, too, the early country rockers were the punks of their generations.

Halliburton: Yeah. Well, at least the rockabilly end of the country spectrum, where the lines were blurred between country music and early rock and roll. And, just to touch on the whole overproduced country stuff, we kind of like to think that we play a style of country that predates a lot of that. We don’t have much in common with a lot of the stuff that’s coming out of Nashville these days. It’s … you know … kind of a different thing. [Laughter]

Miller: We get it, not your cup of tea. [Laughter]

We’re going to listen to part of another song. We’re going to hear “One More Night.” Jenny, what should we know about this song as we start to hear it?

Don’t: This song has kind of evolved over some time. There’s a previous version that we recorded in Australia. So some people might have this song already on a seven inch, but this is just a little bit more refined and a new version.

Miller: All right, this is “One More Night.”

[”One More Night” by Jenny Don’t and the Spurs playing]

Miller: That’s “One More Night” by Jenny Don’t and the Spurs.

Jenny, I’ve heard that the two of you didn’t book your first gig together. Somebody basically came over and told you that they scheduled you. What happened?

Don’t: Kelly and I were playing in separate bands, and we really wanted a project that we could do together when we were home from tours and just for fun on the weekends, like we were saying initially …

Miller: This is after you had become a couple.

Don’t: Yes. I’ve had the Spurs songs, before they were the Spurs, I would just play them around town. Kelly was playing with the Portland couple, Fred and Toody Cole, that were previously in Dead Moon, and they were in Pierced Arrows. But Fred and Toody had started doing some duo shows, and they knew that he and I had some songs that we were tossing around. And then they booked us a show. And we weren’t ready. Toody calls and says, “We booked you a show in March at Ash Street Saloon.” And we go, “What? We’re not in a band.” She goes, “Well, you better figure it out because you’re playing.”

Halliburton: “You’re on the flier.”

Don’t: Yeah, they already had the flier ready and everything. We’re like, “OK.” So we were pretty nervous. We tried to do it just the two of us, and we decided it didn’t sound very good. We enlisted Sam Henry to play just basic drums, snare and brushes, and we played as a trio. The response was really good and welcoming and encouraging and we just kept going from there.

Halliburton: It’s kind of grown out of control.

Miller: You both have mentioned Sam Henry. We should talk about him because you lost him about two years ago. A friend and a band mate, former drummer who died of cancer in 2022. Kelly, you’ve called him a true rock and roller. What was he like?

Halliburton: He was a great guy. He was a real force of nature in a lot of ways. I would call him Portland’s underground drummer laureate. He started playing … he was a little older than us, and he kind of cut his teeth in the bar scene back in the early ‘70s, as a kid. And then he was a first generation punk rocker playing in the Wipers, which was one of the first actual punk rock bands in Portland and a hugely influential band. Sam had his ups and downs over life. But, man, he really came out ahead in later years. He’d exorcised a lot of his demons and just lived to play music. [He] was just one of those guys. He was happier on the road than anywhere else.

Don’t: Yeah, and I think one of the currents that he always had was music. Even in his ups and downs, music was always at the forefront, which is hard to say for a lot of people. Their priorities change and shift. But, yeah, that’s the true rock and roller spirit.

Halliburton: And he brought a real talent to the music scene that a lot of players, especially early on, didn’t really have. The whole punk ethic of anyone can pick up an instrument and fret a couple of chords and form a band, that was kind of the ethos. But Sam was a jazz-trained drummer from the very beginning. He had an extensive musical vocabulary in a lot of instruments, but he was excellent. He was an excellent drummer and really was the backbone for a lot of the bands that he played in.

Miller: Jenny, how much did you feel Sam’s presence as you were making this new album?

Don’t: Oh, a lot. Definitely. He was like, always my number one encourager. When I moved to Portland, I initially was going to start playing music with Andrew Loomis, who was the drummer for Dead Moon – which is this funny connection that Kelly and I have because [there were] these parallel similarities, but we didn’t meet till later. But, it didn’t work out with Andrew, and Andrew Loomis introduced me to Sam. Right away, Sam’s like, “Well, let’s hear some of your songs.” And was just immediately like, “That’s great. I can’t wait to start working with you.”

Miller: And here’s a musical legend giving you encouragement, too.

Don’t: Yeah. And I was just from Bellingham – Acme, Washington, to be exact. So I wasn’t familiar with a lot of music that I probably should have been. So it went over my head a little bit. Like, “The Wipers? OK.” You know, I was pretty young. Then I was like, “Oh, wow.” Sometimes I’m glad I didn’t maybe know right away. But when we were writing the album I feel like, when we’d have a new idea, I can hear Sam being like, “Oh, that’s great!” Just being positive like he always was.

Miller: Let’s listen to part of, of another song from the new album. This is “You’re What I Need.”

[”You’re What I Need by Jenny Don’t and the Spurs playing]

Miller: This is “You’re What I Need” from the Jenny Don’t and the Spurs album. It’s coming out in just a couple of weeks: “Broken Hearted Blue.”

Kelly, you were saying that you wanted to basically figure out a way, after you got together as a couple, to make music together. You succeeded wildly. Now you have made a bunch of albums, you tour all over the world seemingly constantly. What are the challenges of having your romantic and work lives so tied together?

Halliburton: I’m sure there are challenges, but we haven’t run into them yet, and it’s been 15 years.

Miller: What’s the secret then?

Halliburton: I don’t know. I think …

Miller: I mean, a lot of couples who don’t work together can’t say that.

Halliburton: Yeah, we’re both pretty hard headed and focused on what we want out of life, and this is it. We want to play music. I think in a lot of cases it doesn’t work because there’s an unequal distribution of focus and vision. I think that Jenny and I both share that pretty much entirely. I mean, this is just what we want to do. When we’re at home, it’s hard for us to shut down. We wake up, and we start working on band stuff all day. Then, ….

Miller: But because you both want that. It’s a shared obsession.

Don’t: Yeah.

Halliburton: Yeah.

Miller: And there’s no hard feelings about one person putting more focus on the band, say, than anything else.

Halliburton: No.

Don’t: No, I think it’s pretty equal. And we both have different strengths within the band, which I think is really helpful. We make a good team. He’s kind of the brain behind a lot of the booking and the routing, and then I’ll do a lot of the poster making and some of the technical stuff like that. So it’s a good trade off. It’s not one person just carrying the full load.

Miller: Am I right that you’re also sort of the seamstress for the band, the person who makes a lot of clothing now?

Don’t: Yeah.

Miller: What’s that like?

Don’t: That’s really fun because we started with an idea, and then it’s like, oh … start sewing ... it’s OK. But then just honing in on the craft, getting better and better and practicing. And now Kelly wears western fringed rhinestone suits. It’s really nice to see him shining out there on stage and knowing that I helped create that outfit that he’s wearing – and wearing it proudly. [Laughter]

Miller: We have about a minute left. But what are your live shows like? For people who haven’t seen them, can you describe the energy?

Don’t: High energy. Yeah. Really fun. Really welcoming. We want people to have a good time. Maybe a little escape from whatever their day to day life is, and just for an hour, if we can entertain you, that’s what we’re trying to do.

Miller: Do people also bring their rhinestones? You have them on stage. Do people have them on the floor?

Don’t: Yeah. Since our outfits have been increasing in showiness, people have been feeling safe to wear their over-the-top western wear. So it’s been a good time, and we’re a safe space for cowboy boots. [Laughter]

Miller: We can go out with “Broken Hearted Blue” the title track from the album. Jenny and Kelly, thanks so much.

Halliburton: Thanks for having us.

Don’t: Yeah, this was great. Thank you.

Miller: That’s Jenny Don’t, founding member and front woman for Jenny Don’t and The Spurs with her husband, fellow founding member and band bassist Kelly Halliburton.

[”Broken Hearted Blue” by Jenny Don’t and the Spurs playing]

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