Hogan, Butch
Tilly and the Wall
Issue #28
The Omaha quintet continues to spread cheer and tap-dance throughout the land with Bottom of Barrels
By Jenny Sabella
Published: June 1st, 2006 | 1:09pm
The story of Omaha-based quintet Tilly and the Wall sounds too good to be true — five dancing friends, two of them lovers, creating infectious songs that fans go crazy-happy over.
The band — consisting of Neely Jenkins, Kianna Alarid, Derek Presnall, Nick White, and tap-dancing percussionist Jamie Williams — has more energy and originality than many that came before them, which may be the reason the band went from playing songs for fun in Nebraska to landing a record deal just eight months after the band formed.
“I’ve been in bands for the last 10, 12 years,” Williams says. “But I always thought it would be something I did for fun or on the weekends. With Tilly, we really didn’t have any expectations. We would just write songs because we liked to. Things just happened kind of fast.”
In 2004, Tilly and the Wall released their debut album, <tki>Wild Like Children</tki> on Team Love, the label started by their longtime friend Conor Oberst, and this year sees the release of the quintet’s sophomore effort, <tki>Bottom of Barrels.</tki>
“It’s definitely a Tilly album,” Williams says. “But we know each other so much better now as songwriters. We really thought more about song arrangements and what the ideas [were] behind the album. It’s a little more involved, for us.”
Part of Tilly’s charm is their approach to percussion — Williams had tapped for a few songs here and there in past bands, but never considered making it a regular occurrence until Tilly started. Another band staple is their stage show, where all members dance, sing, and smile for the duration of the set. Although, according to Williams, some fans were initially thrown off by what exactly she was doing onstage.
“Outside of Omaha, when we would start playing, people didn’t know what was going on,” she says. “You can’t see my feet on a lot of the stages because the monitors were covering them up. Some people thought I was up there just dancing. If I were the dancer for Tilly, I would make up way better moves than that.”
And for anyone else who is wondering what is up with the band’s name, Williams credits her time as a grade-school teacher prior to joining Tilly for the idea. “It’s actually the title of a children’s book. It’s just about outsiders overcoming obstacles, that kind of story,” she says. “We didn’t even think about the story that much, but it ended up fitting our band really well.”
Williams and Presnall started dating shortly after the band formed. The band hits the U.S. in June and July and have a break in August for Williams and Presnall’s wedding. Who doesn’t love a happy ending once in awhile?
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