Jaron Utt was afraid nobody would come to the concert.
There were three bands on the bill, but they were all locals. There was no sexy touring band to whip up a sense of urgency.
And the concert itself was being held after hours in a record store, and not at a bar with a built-in audience.
As it turned out, he had nothing to worry about. Yellow Racket Records was packed. The crowd barely made a sound as Jaron Utt, Cody Ray, and El Rocko performed three hours of original music. It was the kind of night that made Jaron Utt move to Chattanooga.
Utt hails from the small mountain town of Hayesville, North Carolina. It’s pretty common for an artist to claim their hometown was small, but Hayesville is really, really small. According to the most recent Census, the population tops out at 438.
With a measure of reluctance, Utt followed in his family’s footsteps to attend college in Cleveland. But his heart was always in music, and in nearby Chattanooga, he found lots of great music.
“The Chattanooga music scene feels like it is in a really healthy spot,” he said. “There’s a strong sense of community, and it’s not about competition. It’s about art.” Since moving to Chattanooga over the last couple years, he’s found friendship and creative inspiration from bands like Ego Museum, Mult, and No Country.
His friendship with Daniel Nelson, Cooper Twit, and Hampton Peay led to the creation of Walter Slide, a good-time indie pop band that’s been touring regionally and building a strong fanbase in advance of their first album.
Utt says his songwriting for Walter Slide tends to be more upbeat and danceable. But for solo shows like the recent one at Yellow Racket, he goes in a more dramatic, emotional direction. “My own stuff tends to be more personal and more about my past or current things I’m dealing with. Walter Slide songs are more just about fun topics.”
He used his song I Stayed Cool as an example. “There’s this masculine tendency to try and not show emotion, and that’s what the chorus is about,” he said. “The chorus is me saying how I cried in the bathroom until it passed, but I stayed cool around you when I got back. It was based on this idea of how you have to hide how you feel and keep up an image of masculinity. So I was poking at that a little.”
Utt says he’s not one to plan too far ahead, but he has no intention of leaving Chattanooga for now. “The music scene just in the last couple years has grown so much.”
Jaron Utt, Cody Ray and Alex the Band will perform together this Thursday, February 15th at the Woodshop in St. Elmo. There is no cover charge. Doors open at 7 and music will begin at 8.