Local band Nice Dog combines indie rock and blues in debut album

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Ten minutes ’til showtime, and the band didn’t have a name.

Across the street from Galvez Plaza sat the gourmet hotdog stand Nice Dog. Garrett Howell shuffled over to the sweet lady running the stand and asked permission to share its name. She said yes, and Nice Dog the band took the stage.

Local indie-blues band Nice Dog might fit the trope that bands name themselves on a whim. But they also embody the gritty, goosebump-inducing sound of traditional blues music. Combined with strong guitar riffs and brassy vocals, Nice Dog has been perfecting its indie-blues sound.

The band is young—all of the members are college-age—but has an air of practiced efficiency and connectivity in the way the musicians interact. That could be because—other than keyboardist Keenan Torrence, who joined in late 2015—the group’s members met nearly six years ago in a young musicians program at Baton Rouge Music Studios.

Since 2011, drummer Garrett Howell, singer and guitarist Logan Wagner, bassist Robert Denoux and guitarist Austin Roy have written original songs and performed them at local venues such as Spanish Moon, Phil Brady’s Bar & Grill, North Boulevard Town Square, Atomic Pop Shop and the former Chelsea’s Cafe.

Nice Dog recently performed its first set at Varsity Theatre, a venue many consider a sort of rite of passage for local musicians.

The band recorded a four-track EP in summer 2014, packed with Wagner’s beautifully scratchy vocals, Howell’s steady but moving drum beats and Roy’s plucky guitar riffs.

Now Nice Dog is prepping its first professionally recorded, full-length album. Baton Rouge Music Studios hosted the band for recording sessions during the first two weeks of August, and with the help of sound engineer Ryan Erwin, the band is working to release the album by year-end.

Coming from diverse musical backgrounds, the musicians agree that rehearsals and writing sessions can sometimes be overwhelming, but they try to use that to their advantage.

“We collaborate a lot, and we let ideas fly around, and that’s how the best ones are born,” Howell says. “Where our tastes overlap, that’s where our chemistry is.”

With 10 tracks, the new album will still hold tight to the bluesy sound on that first EP, but some songs are a part of what the members call Nice Dog’s “elaboration and expansion” stage. Howell says the songs will be more spacious and psychedelic.

The entire project was inspired by “Waves,” the group’s first song and music video. When the song became a hit with fans and the video was a success on social media, the members of Nice Dog knew they had more in them.

“We had a lot of fun with ‘Waves,’ and it was a double win because our followers liked it, too,” Wagner says. “So why not make an entire album and see where it goes?”

Nice Dog also has a small tour in mind now that the album is in the works. The tour would include venues in places like New Orleans, Houston, Austin and Orange Beach, Alabama, before coming home to Baton Rouge.

Currently, they are on the books for a Sept. 15 show at the Spanish Moon.

The 2014 EP can be heard at nicedogband.bandcamp.com. The full-length album will be released on that website, plus on Google Play, Spotify and iTunes. Hard copies of the album will be available at the band’s local gigs or at Baton Rouge Music Studios.