The New Quintet

americana · roots · folk

The New Quintet is a Chattanooga, Tennessee roots band led by multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Edward Williams on guitar, banjo and vocals, with Emma Dubose on fiddle, Jade Watts on upright bass and guitar, Gordon Inman on clarinet and Cody Ray on guitar, lap steel and bass. All five members sing. The group works in turn-of-the-century American forms, taking in traditional folk, ragtime, old-time and early country, mixing reworked traditional material with original writing, and its arrangements lean toward dynamic and at times cinematic instrumental settings rather than straight string-band revivalism. The clarinet in particular pushes the sound toward early jazz alongside the fiddle and lap steel. The band's debut album, Some Ya Do, Some Ya Don't, was released in March 2026 through EarthTone Records. Williams brings a long solo record to the group. Born in Seattle and raised moving between states, he recorded eight independent full-length albums under the name Whetherman between 2007 and 2018 before releasing As I Go Ramblin' Around in 2019, which reached number six on the International Folk Radio DJ album chart that year. Folk Songs for Old Times' Sake followed in November 2021 and Rags, Folk and Blues, Oh My! in January 2025 on EarthTone. He is a fingerpicker who also plays harmonica and stomp box, and he hosts American Songcatcher, a roots music history podcast. He has shared bills with Taj Mahal, The Wood Brothers, Dom Flemons, John Paul White, Town Mountain, John Craigie and Caamp, and the Grammy-winning folklorist David Holt has praised his guitar arrangements. The quintet performs regularly in its home city, with concert recordings made at Barking Legs Theatre and at Songbirds, and its sets are built on instrumental interplay and group harmony.

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