Line-up: Mike Herrera - Songwriter, Lead Vocals, Guitar | Jack Parker - Lead Guitar and BVs | Marshall Trotland - Standup Bass and BVs | Harley Trotland - Drums and Cymbals

Hometown: Bremerton, WA

Story: Webster's defines “tumbledown” as “dilapidated, ramshackle.” For Tumbledown singer/guitarist Mike Herrera, the term evokes “something from a bygone era that's been long forgotten,” like the “tumbledown shacks” he read about in the biography Woody Guthrie: A Life. That image of America's past spoke so loudly to Herrera that it gave his band a name. The music of Tumbledown takes that sepia-tinged image of Americana and sends it hurtling into the present, with the help of some punk-inflected riffs and pure rock & roll attitude. The punky side of the band's musical personality comes naturally to Herrera, who first became known in the '90s as the frontman for renowned rockers MxPx, but the pure, honest twang of country music has been echoing in the Tumbledown leader's ears ever since he was a young boy singing along while Willie Nelson's “On the Road Again” came stomping out of his family's car stereo.

In the late '90s, after he'd already spent years on the road himself, rocking out all over the globe with MxPx, Herrera started tapping into that long-held love of American roots music, and out came songs that had more to do with down-home, old-timey sensibilities than the larger-than-life rock world. But it wasn't until 2007 that he finally formed Tumbledown, to realize his vision of an Americana band with some raw-boned, rock & roll bite. The next year, Tumbledown released their first EP, Atlantic City, followed by a self-titled album in 2009 (End Sounds) and a live CD entitled Live In Tulsa, and ... Read more