Tilted presents: Tracy Nelson, Sam Silbert & The Circle of Fire, The Materialistics, Cowboy Death
Strung Up
3150 Richmond St.
Philadelphia
July 2, 2026
The 104° heat advisory gave this gig an emergency last minute venue change from DIY house venue Minimart to the cavernous cool basement of Strung Up. Considering the heat there was a decent turnout. Two NYC touring acts played —Tracey Nelson and The Materialistics — along with local groups Cowboy Death and The Circle of Fire. The Circle of Fire really hit hard with a fully realized and fleshed-out treatment of their songs. The acoustic nature of most of the performances ended up being a cool reprieve.
The touring acts Thursday night were experiments in reduction. Both The Materialistics and Tracy Nelson were mostly acoustic affairs, sans drums. The Materialistics had soft vocals that made you lean in, but their electric guitarist created some well placed tension, moving slightly adjacent to the singer with his acoustic. Tracey Nelson's performance achieved similar effect by borrowing the guitarist playing lead with The Materialistics.
There was an alt-country sway to the performance and the picking going on behind the vocals was spry with a light reverb. This added even more feeling and depth to what was already accomplished by Austin (the main singer/songwriter of Tracy Nelson) who didn't need a band to convey what he was doing. His performance had a somewhat emotional tone, but nothing felt too raw or overwrought. Any crackle in his voice or blaring note on his harmonica felt peppered by a mature hand.
He came off as an experienced and solid songwriter. The music had a slow quality that sat with you a little before grabbing you. There were some really blissful and pretty moments between his performance and the nice trebled guitar perched behind him.
Cowboy Death is a fairly young band; I think it's not super common to see DIY folks this age tackling genres like indie folk or Americana. There was surprise to be felt somewhere in the contrast between the sound of the group and their age. A label like "Americana" can have a lot of postering associated with it, but their delivery felt convincing and I would even go so far as to call it fresh. There were some small differences that steered them away from sounding generic.
The main guitarist veered into shoegaze territory; the right combination of delay pedal and pushing a tiny five-wat amplifier to its upper limits achieved a grabbing reverb bite, and did so while not having to play at ear-splitting volume. Another unusual decision was the keyboardist using a melodica during one of the songs. Not an instrument you associate with this kind of music, but it fit really well. Adding violin was a great live touch, and the band let me know afterwards that the violinist was actually filing in and they usually have a viola in its stead. The really alluring part of Cowboy Death is the song structures. A standout track they perform is called "Horse."
It's a six-and-a-half minute mournful county epic with a good dose of some slightly emo-tinged vocals, plus loud, immersive and bleary guitar work, and a great accordion and viola accompaniment. It really feels like 'indie folk' and 'alt-country' are due for more fresh takes like this.
From my previous article on Sam Silbert you may have gathered that I'm a fan of his recent material. That is absolutely correct: The Circle of Fire is shaping up to be a formidable band. I do mean the whole band. The confidence level and volume hit me right up front.
You really feel each performer honing in and calculating what would serve the song. At a certain point, the drummer switched from shaker to stick action. This really amped the songs up. The electric Korg offered a lot more dynamic range and tone changes. The keyboardist, Melanie, showed me the little panel she used to manipulate treble or whatever was needed mid performance, and there were sections where the organ sounded almost like a harmonica. There's a classic warble she's reaching for with that sound (The Band...) and she mentioned a possibility of purchasing a rotating Leslie amp to really bring that sound home (hell yeah!). Scott's nylon string was up high in the mix; its lulling rhythm gave it a dirge-like effect. I don't believe it would have the same effect on a steel string. This more realized structure had Sam really letting loose with sudden and eruptive solos. I noticed that he skipped on a pick and was letting his finger do all that tendril-like guitar work. Sam was even finger-tapping solos at one point. The songs were beautiful before, but now they were big and beautiful.
This show was a sweet surprise in a town that, at least in DIY circles, has less going on in folk or acoustic stylings. The touring acts showed us you don't even need a full band to impress. As for Cowboy Death and The Circle of Fire, both seem to arrive at familiar sounds via very different paths you might not expect from just a cursory listen. Both bands welcomed fresh air into a classic sound.
