The weather was clear, and the pickup truck show was a go.
Koda Kerl brought the idea to Dürty Nelly’s when he started managing the local bar’s music booking in spring of 2021. Nelly’s owner Jordan Brunk had hired Kerl to kickstart his sound coming out of lockdown, and one idea was to formalize “the corral,” a casual outdoor gathering of musicians born at Brunk’s other bar and restaurant, Crozet Pizza at Buddhist Biker Bar. “It wasn’t so much a performance, but we would try some new songs, and it grew,” Kerl says.
Riffing on the concept at Dürty Nelly’s, Kerl and Brunk decided not only to launch the “curated songwriter showcase,” but also to expand their usable outdoor space—weather permitting—by using the bed of a pickup truck as a stage.
Koda’s Corral has since hosted a bevy of local talents, including Adam Long, Emily Kresky, Kai Crowe-Getty, Rob Cheatham, Will Overman, and Kerl himself. But it was that first night when they rolled the pickup out as a perch that stuck with him.
“It was a special night—beautiful at sunset, tons of people crowded around,” Kerl says. “I grew up in Nelson County, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
The songwriter showcase epitomizes the vibe Kerl and Brunk want to drive: A dusty Americana, Southern rocking and eclectic soundstage, where folks who like cheap drinks and dancing like no one’s watching can do their thing.
Kerl himself has spent a lot of time touring and exploring venues as frontman for Chamomile & Whiskey, and as a result, he knows the value of stepping-stone clubs like Dürty Nelly’s. They’re a place to be seen and grow recognition as bands climb to bigger houses. And they’re places where more established bands can stop in without stress between cities. Places with an easygoing vibe where you might not make a ton of money, but you can have a good time, play without pressure, stay sharp, and sling a little merch. “We don’t have an enormous budget, but we’ve been gaining a reputation for being fun and an easy stop on the way to more lucrative shows,” Kerl says.
Kerl says he tried to draw on diversity to keep the new Nelly’s sound interesting; his goal is always to bring in audiences where the faces don’t all look the same. That means that along with the traditional country sound of Richmond’s Deau Eyes, the bar has put up the ’80s-inflected garage rock of Work Wear, as well as the jaunty indie outfit Daddy’s Beemer from Charleston, South Carolina.
Nelly’s has hosted music video shoots for local friends like Lord Nelson and Shagwüf, and teamed up with Fry’s Spring Beach Club to host a doubleheader for Fredericksburg’s Elby Brass. After the band’s horn players had graced the club’s pool, they processed down JPA to Nelly’s for another set. “They’re always up for things like that,” Kerl says of Brunk and his team at the bar, where he’s careful to point out he’s not actually an employee. “They want to work with everyone and build the scene.”
Kerl says Dürty Nelly’s won’t soon be hosting cover bands, and some genres, like extremely loud metal, might clash with the space’s acoustics, but otherwise, the team remains open. “It’s fun to see people in their 70s hanging out with college kids and people of different tastes,” Kerl says. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes us proud and happy to be a part of the scene.”
If fans of Chamomile & Whiskey are wondering how’s he gonna find time to make new music himself—not to worry, he says. His band has a nearly finished new record, which Kerl’s begrudgingly acquiesced to leaking out streaming-style one song at a time, and they’re ready to hit the road to support it. He says he’s in a rhythm at Nelly’s; all he has to do is figure out how to be a little quicker with all the emails.
“We just finished our first longer tour a few weeks ago, so I can finally take a break from driving and scroll through my phone and get back to people,” Kerl says. “When I was younger, I know I made every mistake you could, but the funniest one to me is the blanket email that doesn’t even mention the name of the venue. So those get moved on from, but we don’t mind emails from wild acts. We’re all ears for that kind of thing.”