Members of Tyler Childers’ Band Release Album Under “El Dorodo”
Well damn, who knew they had this up their sleeve?
With all that down time in recent years, the backing band of Tyler Childers wasn’t just sitting there with their thumbs up their butts. Apparently they were busy writing and recording songs for their side project called “El Dorodo”—mind the ‘o’ instead of an ‘a’ for the traditional spelling of the term.
Just as yours truly was trying to get the full story behind a couple of singles released by El Dorodo recently, they hauled off and released an entire album on Friday, January 27th called Unincorporated.
Though you have to dig to find it, a Facebook page, Instagram page, and website confirm the identities of who is behind El Dorodo, and it is Foodstamps drummer Rod Elkins (shortened to “Rod”), bassist Craig “Hawk” Burletic (bob your head), and lead guitar/pedal steel guitarist James “Witchita” Barker. They’re joined by “Dangerous” Doug Woodward, who shares frontman/singing duties with Rod Elkins.
El Dorodo is country, and traditional country at that. But there is also a bit of a tongue-in-cheek approach to this project as can be seen in the video below, so don’t take them (or yourselves) too seriously. Yes, they have videos, and they even played a couple of shows on January 27th at The Basement in Nashville, and January 28th at The Burl in Lexington, Kentucky.
Up to this point, there has been absolutely no press or any other mention of this project aside from the band’s social media pages. It’s been 100% low-key, either on purpose, so that people stumble on it organically, or because like so many things these days, the press is just asleep at the wheel. Apparently the nucleus of the band has been together since high school (Cabell Midland High School according to this article), and have played multiple shows around Kentucky over the years.
Running down the songwriters for the project, Rod Elkins and Doug Woodward handle the lion’s share of the writing, but Craig Burletic also lends one song, and the manager for Tyler Childers, Ian Thornton, co-writes a song as well. The only person missing from the classic Foodstamps lineup is “The Professor” Jesse Wells, but he played with them at the show at The Burl in Kentucky.
The band’s website says in part, “El Dorodo is all of these things and all of these things are Country music. El Dorodo appreciates, respects and loves all types of “good” music. You may hear aspects of these different genres represented in our music. We are fans first. Our hearts lie in Country/Western/Old Time music and culture. We represent true, honest Country music to be consumed by the masses and we do so with full hearts. Our aim is to get back to the basics of love…El Dorodo is country music.”
A proper review for this project will be forthcoming. But since there was no info out there in the world about El Dorodo, it seemed like someone needed to address it sooner than later. So here you go ladies and gentlemen: El Dorodo.
TRACK LIST:
1. Tell Me Why (Doug Woodward)
2. The Rose of San Antone (J. Baisden, Rod Elkins)
3. Whiskey, Women, and Wine (Doug Woodward)
4. I Get Around (Doug Woodward, Rod Elkins)
5. Don’t Break My Heart (Doug Woodward, Ian Thornton)
6. Bed of Roses (Craig Burletic)
7. Like The Others (Rod Elkins)
8. Dreamin’ Man’s Blues (Doug Woodward)
9. Life of Sin (Doug Woodward)
10. Cowboys/Cowgirls (Rod Elkins)
This story has been updated.
January 29, 2023 @ 11:12 am
Tyler makes reference to this band in a concert I downloaded off nugs from 2018 or 2019. Never checked them out yet
January 29, 2023 @ 11:22 am
If nugs is your thing, he name drops them at about the 3:00 mark of shake the frost 11/30/18 @ exit in Nashville
January 29, 2023 @ 11:54 am
I had a faint memory of Rod Elkins having a band and singing, but never ran across a band name or any other details. Not sure if it’s by design or accident that barely anybody knew about them, but good on them for releasing an album.
January 29, 2023 @ 4:48 pm
I think there was a band El Dorodo that included Elkins and different non-Foodstamps members that toured Appalachia. Now, it seems like some guys were swapped out for Burletic and Barker. I initially thought this was a COVID/ Childers “on a break project,” but now I see people claiming they saw them playing in 2016 and the band was made up of “high school friend.” That couldn’t be the same band with Burletic and Barker. Burletic is from Pittsburgh and the Foodstamps weren’t formed until late 2016, early 2017.
Are all the song titles supposed to be parodies of other song titles?
Dorodo (without the “a”)
Whiskey, Women & Wine /Whiskey, Weed & Women (Hank III)
Tell Me Why (Wynonna)
Rose of San Antone / San Antonio Rose
Life of Sin (Sturgill)
Bed of Roses (Highway 101)
January 29, 2023 @ 5:04 pm
Craig moved from Pittsburgh as a small kid, these guys have played together since high school.
January 29, 2023 @ 6:04 pm
When were the Foodstamps formed? Did Tyler just absorb and rebrand El Dorodo as his backing band in 2017?
January 29, 2023 @ 6:27 pm
Not sure the exact date they started calling themselves the Foodstamps, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t until after they started playing with Tyler. The band they had right before that was called Deadbeats and Barkers. They have some old videos of themselves on YouTube.
January 29, 2023 @ 6:33 pm
I’m going down the rabbit hole tonight. Thank you for the information.
January 29, 2023 @ 6:36 pm
Here’s some good background on them. http://www.williamsondailynews.com/news/troubadour-tyler-childers-album-released-friday/article_0f45c773-a290-55d0-a142-49a4111e3ff4.html
January 29, 2023 @ 7:43 pm
Good find.
January 29, 2023 @ 8:28 pm
Apparently the first time they played together was at a birthday party at the V Club in August of 2012. Very interesting lineup as it featured some incredible Appalachian artists in previous forms including John R Miller with Prison Book Club, Justin Wells with Fifth on the Floor, and Small Batch, which Tyler Childers was a member of/sat in with for a stretch (Jersey Giant was sung with Tree from Small Batch). Obviously they weren’t The Food Stamps yet, but it was definitely before 2016/17 as they are referenced in the article below as playing as Tyler and The Food Stamps in May of 2014. https://www.herald-dispatch.com/features_entertainment/local-rockers-unleash-sophomore-album/article_adca2710-c96e-5047-bda1-05c6ce62b819.html
January 29, 2023 @ 8:38 pm
I can’t access that article. It’s behind a paywall. But, excellent work! Much appreciated. I’ll be up all night on YouTube.
January 29, 2023 @ 9:07 pm
Great find! The oldest thing I could find was a Facebook post promoting a concert on 12/12/2013 that mentioned that The Foodstamps were Deadbeats and Barkers. https://www.facebook.com/events/254350114721785/?active_tab=about
For anyone who wants to read Herald-Dispatch article without the paywall, you should be able to see it with a free account, I didn’t have to subscribe to read it.
January 30, 2023 @ 3:36 pm
Tyler’s manager used to own a bar called Shamrocks. It might not have been where all those guys first met, but, along with V Club, it was sort of ground zero for that entire music scene, including Tyler, John R. MIller, William Matheny, Bud Carroll, Ona, etc. Ian was the glue with all those guys, and played bass for a bunch of them through the years before Tyler hit it big. Good article on him here: https://wvpublic.org/how-one-mans-made-wvmusic-sing/
January 29, 2023 @ 8:42 pm
It was free to access, you just need to sign up. Well worth it, some interesting history that I certainly didn’t know before.
January 29, 2023 @ 11:19 am
Another great artist on the rise representing Dixie is a feller by the name of Josh Driver
January 29, 2023 @ 12:04 pm
They have been around for a while. They played several shows during COVID and Tyler has been referencing them since at least 2018. This album has been in the works for a few years and was recorded at James Barker’s studio in Huntington.
We were at the album release show and they were amazing!!
We were
January 29, 2023 @ 12:33 pm
I’m glad to see that they’re on your radar. I’ve seen them live twice now—opening for Hellbound Glory back in 2016 and again last year along with a bunch of people that have worked with Tyler Childers—and they were excellent both times.
January 29, 2023 @ 2:58 pm
New to me! I won’t pretend to have heard about them.
This stuff is absolutely great! What a find! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
January 29, 2023 @ 4:13 pm
Like the song but the vocals are buried too deep in the mix behind the music!
January 29, 2023 @ 4:25 pm
Nice. Lovin’ it so far!
January 30, 2023 @ 6:59 am
Just a few minutes ago I was checking Apple Music to see what new music had come out Friday. Buried at the back of the new country music releases was this album. I had no idea who they were. I clicked through and listened to a little bit of each song. Honestly, I kept thinking to myself that this was almost good, but the vocals really kind of put me off anything I thought was ok. I decided to move on.
Knowing the background of the band, maybe I’ll give it a full listen.
January 30, 2023 @ 9:00 am
Wow, just announced they are making their Opry debut in April!
January 30, 2023 @ 9:47 am
Basically a less over the top Wheeler Walker Jr spoof on country music sans the lyrics about eating your girlfriend’s father’s butthole.
February 2, 2023 @ 8:56 am
I just pre-ordered a copy of the gold colored vinyl edition of this record. Can’t wait! Thanks for the tip on this one, Trigger.