The Rough & Tumble

The Rough and Tumble, a dynamic duo comprised of Mallory Graham and Scott Tyler, have been captivating audiences with their unique blend of dumpster-folk and thrift store-Americana for over a decade. The Pennsylvania-born Graham and Central California's Tyler have a knack for weaving together elements of joy, sorrow, comedy, and drama in their music, leaving audiences on the edge of their seats.

Writing and performing together since 2007, Graham and Tyler inevitably formed The Rough & Tumble in 2011 as friends turned into bandmates. In 2015, after a bad Nashville landlord left them without heat for 12 days during an ice storm, the bandmates-turning-spouses hit the road. They sold everything they could, bought a 16-foot camper (despite the warning of their families and the lot salesman), packed up their instruments, dogs, and a couple of small trinkets shaped like elephants and mice they couldn’t part with, and hit the road. They’ve been touring relentlessly ever since, despite multiple burnt-up axles, busted tires, and consistent water leaks. In 2022, after a series of strange events, including an invitation to see a historic jail, the band found themselves planted in a home in northern New Hampshire–at least part of the year. Home life has them cultivating their local music scene, but it hasn’t kept them from the road.

An album for the faithful, the faithless, and the somewhere-in-between, The Rough & Tumble’s latest, Hymns for My Atheist Sister & Her Friends to Sing Along To, was released in 2024. It is a record wherein all are welcome--those who are brokenhearted from a faith that didn't love them back, still carrying religious baggage, or continuing in the faith they were taught as children. It's an album about truth, mystery, and most importantly, loving your neighbor. Hymns for My Atheist Sister & Her Friends To Sing Along To is profoundly reaching live audiences as the band performs on tour for both the religious and irreligious. The Rough & Tumble are walking a tightrope–not of neutrality, but of radical love that appeals to the heartstrings of a wide array of audiences–most poignantly in a time of a country critically divided.

It takes determination and stamina to live this hardscrabble lifestyle, but not as much as it takes for them to stay still. Luck and old-fashioned working together make it possible for you to see The Rough & Tumble pull their camper into Syracuse and do what they do best: speaking up until they’re heard. We suggest you do the same.

"The Rough & Tumble make music that’s progressive folk style, rooted in acoustic bluegrass, with lyrics that are provocative and sensitive on each side as you flip the coin." --Americana Highways

"...they sure as hell are peaking high and mighty in this music and songwriting game." --Brian Carroll, Red Line Roots

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by CNY Arts.

This project is made possible with funds  from the Tier Three Project Support program, a regrant program of the County of Onondaga with the support of the County Executive and administered by CNY Arts.

  ~ This project is also made possible through the support and generosity of our Folkus members. ~