Rome & Duddy Tour 2024

City Winery Philadelphia presents Rome & Duddy Tour 2024 live in concert on March 3rd at 7:30pm

Over 15 years of sharing stages and studios with each other’s massively beloved bands, Sublime with

Rome’s Rome Ramirez and Dirty Heads’ Dustin Bushnell AKA Duddy B have forged the kind of

creative chemistry that often leads to unexpected magic. The first song the duo ever wrote together,

Dirty Heads’ 2010 smash hit “Lay Me Down” featured a soulful vocal performance from Ramirez.

This song quickly made history as the first track from an indie label to reach #1 on Billboard’s Rock

Songs chart, in addition to holding steady as number one on the Alternative Songs chart for 11

weeks. Soon after wrapping up the hugely successful Rome & Duddy Friends & Family Acoustic

Tour—a 2019/2020 co-headlining run cut short by Covid—the two California-bred musicians holed

up in a cabin in the woods of Idyllwild and began teasing out new songs, tapping into such eclectic

inspirations as Peter Tosh, Dr. John, and the cosmic country of the Flying Burrito Brothers. The

result: a one-of-a-kind new project that matches the rootsy simplicity and true-to-life storytelling of

Americana with the hypnotic rhythms and breezy guitar tones of reggae, arriving at a bold and

timeless sound all their own.

“Both of us started out playing our acoustic guitars around the campfire, and this collaboration was

a way to get back to our roots while doing something way outside our comfort zone,” says Ramirez.

Bushnell adds: “We’ve both been making music for a long time and we know what makes us happy,

what works for us and what doesn’t. We’re at a point where we’ve got the freedom to completely do

our own thing, and this project is a perfect example of that.”

Co-produced by Vance Powell (a four-time Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer known for

his work with Chris Stapleton, Jack White, and Phish) and Leroy Powell (a producer/multi-

instrumentalist who’s worked with artists like Shooter Jennings and Sturgill Simpson), Rome &

Duddy’s debut EP Cactus Cool took shape at Sputnik Sound in Ramirez’s homebase of Nashville. In

bringing the six-track project to life, Rome & Duddy joined forces with A-list musicians like

legendary Dobro player Jerry Douglas (Béla Fleck, Eric Clapton), bassist Brian Allen (Chris Shiflett,

Brent Cobb), saxophone/flute player Jovan Quallo (Keb’ Mo’, Dan + Shay), drummer/percussionist

Chris Powell (Brandi Carlile, The Oak Ridge Boys), and pianist/organist Michael Webb (Grammy

Award winner/Hank Williams Jr., Zac Brown Band), with Leroy Powell also playing guitar, pedal

steel, and harmonica. Written on acoustic guitar and recorded solely with organic instrumentation,

Cactus Cool ultimately spotlights the vibrant musicianship most recently shown on albums like

Sublime with Rome’s Blessing (a #2 hit on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart) and Dirty

Heads’ 2022 full-length Midnight Control (featuring the top 10 single “Life’s Been Good”). “We

decided from day one that we wanted to make music with a classic feel to it—something that you

could listen to 30 years from now, and it would still hold up,” Bushnell notes.

The first song created for Cactus Cool, the EP’s lead single “Cannabis Tree” immediately draws the

listener into Rome & Duddy’s singular sonic world. With its swaying grooves and dreamy steel-

guitar work, the warm and radiant track invites everyone to slip into an easier mindset, an effect

multiplied by its soul-soothing melodies. “We’d gone up the mountains in Idyllwild and locked

ourselves away in a cabin, and pretty soon we ended up stumbling on this concoction of traditional

reggae-folk and Americana,” Ramirez says in reflecting on the song’s origins. “It was uncharted

water for us, but at the same time it felt so natural.” After their Idyllwild trip, Bushnell began making

frequent treks from his home in Huntington Beach, California, to Ramirez’s spot in Nashville, with

the two steadily building up an expansive body of work. In a particularly fruitful writing trip, Rome

& Duddy headed to the seaside South Carolina home of longtime Zac Brown Band collaborator,

Wyatt Durrette, where they penned several songs set to appear on their forthcoming full-length

debut. “Wyatt’s a very notable writer and he doesn’t take on a lot of stuff, but he heard what we’re

doing and wanted to work with us,” says Ramirez. “We went to a session at his house and wrote

songs until the wee hours of the morning and spent some time partying on the beach, and that

whole atmosphere really left its mark on the songs we came up with.”