TEN YEARS TALL: Them Coulee Boys to Release Celebratory 10-Year EP
the EP contains the band’s staple songs, including re-recorded tracks from their first two albums
Them Coulee Boys, a popular crowd-drawing local folk band, is celebrating their tenth anniversary this year. Their history in the Chippewa Valley is as rich as it is long, and to celebrate the milestone, the band is in the process of releasing a new EP, Ten Years Tall.
The EP is filled with re-recorded staples from the band’s first two albums as well as a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which has been a band favorite to perform over the years. Ten Years Tall is available exclusively on Bandcamp as of now, but the first single, “Sign of the Times”, will be released on other streaming platforms on June 22; the full EP will be released on September 1.
Made up of Soren Staff (vocals, acoustic guitar), Beau Janke (banjo, vocals), Jens Staff (mandolin, vocals), Neil Krause (bass, vocals), and Staš Hable (drums), Them Coulee Boys got their start as a three-piece band in 2013, after Soren and Beau met as counselors at the Luther Park Bible camp in Chetek in 2011. Neil joined the band four years later and their newest member, Staš, completed the five-piece in 2019.
The Ten Years Tall EP includes eight songs, “Sign of the Times” and “Maybe” starting out the EP, both originally from the band's first EP and previously unavailable on streaming platforms. Other songs on the EP, “Made for You”, “Could You Blame Me”, “Livin’ and Lyin’”, “Hammer”, and “$8 Beer”, are re-recorded from their first full-length album, I Never Lied About Being in Love.
Them Coulee Boys created the milestone-marking collection because they wanted to give fans streamable versions of songs they often perform live – a first-time option – as well as their desire to re-approach longtime favorites that have been further developed over years of performing.
“It’s kind of fun that some songs were able to grow and change and some songs are like, ‘This is what it is,’ and that’s cool,” Soren said.
“For some songs, (changes) weren’t even intentional,” Jens added. “As you play songs live they just slowly change as we get better as musicians, and then that translates into, ‘Let’s do that because we can now,’ and it just slowly makes a complete change.”
To celebrate their EP and anniversary, Them Coulee Boys headed over to the Trempealeau Hotel on May 26 and 27 where they performed for over 1,300 people in the two-day span. Beau, who is originally from Trempealeau and a former employee of the Trempealeau Hotel, said it was nice to play in his hometown because it felt like a full-circle moment, especially since it was the first time his full family was able to see the band live.
“A cool part about this band is that when we started, the only people that would come to our shows would be family and friends and then as it goes on, you know less and less people… so we're playing shows where we don't know anybody,” Jens said. “So to go and play a show where everybody out there is somebody we know is really cool.”
Them Coulee Boys will be back in the Chippewa Valley to play at the sold-out Blue Ox Music Festival on June 22 and they are as excited as ever to perform in the city where they got their start.
“We're not from here, so it is cool to become a part of the fabric of Eau Claire's music scene because frankly, I mean, it's incredible,” Soren said. “There's a whole lot of history here in Eau Claire. So for us to be a part of that after not growing up here, it's just like we thought it was cool how we were welcomed here and embraced.”
You can listen to Ten Years Tall only on Bandcamp for now, but the rest of the EP will be available to stream on all platforms on August 31. Learn more about Them Coulee Boys and see their upcoming shows at themcouleeboys.com.
