Chicago’s Trickshooter Social Club is an intriguing eight-piece music ensemble that blends country grit, garage punk and bluesy storytelling into what they call a “working-class musical soup.” The creative core of the band consists of co-founders Steve Simoncic (lead vocals, guitar) and Larry Liss (lead guitar, backup vocals), who join forces with the powerful voice of co-lead singer Jenna Leigh.
Their huge, powerful sound receives its rich flavor from James McNaughton on bass, Rob Kristan on drums, Chris Bartley on keyboards, Beltran Delcampo on fiddle and Ruth Margraff on the accordion. This multi-instrumentalist family together crafts a raw, live vibe that is immensely warm and real. Over the years they have earned a solid reputation for delivering honest, sincere music with albums like American Experiment, Truck Stop Dangerous and No Dogma.
Trickshooter Social Club’s latest album, Porchlight Pie, gives a charming, reassuring outlook on surviving the demands of modern life. The album offers a loving, safe shelter for tired spirits instead of claiming to have easy, polished answers to our daily challenges. The term alone evokes a welcoming porch light shining on a dark, cold night—a safe area for anyone who is feeling a bit battered by life but refuses to give up. This collection of five songs embraces, with real love, grit and optimism, the dirty, terrible things of our world, rather than avoiding them.
We’re Better When We’re Broken
The musical journey opens up in a dazzling fashion with “We’re Better When We’re Broken.” This music starts with a happy rock song with a bounce of a folk feel to celebrate the fact that it’s our flaws and hardships that can bring us together more. It takes away the pressure to be perfect and reminds us that true intimacy and love do not thrive in pristine, untouched environments. Instead, they develop in the precise places where we’ve been harmed and healed together. This reassuring song depicts a long connection not as a smooth, easy journey but as a daily, purposeful choice to cling onto each other closely through life’s ups and downs.
The record soon moves into the fast, furious rush of modern anxiety with “Wide Awake,” which is in stark contrast. This tune plunges headlong into hard, buzzing garage rock to give a clear image of what it feels like to lie awake at night with your mind racing. It represents the complete exhaustion of trying to live in a loud, divided society where it’s impossible to find any real rest. Yet, within this breathless, high-energy song, sleeplessness is not shown as a weakness; instead, it is a sign of our fierce, stubborn drive to keep moving forward even when the weight of the world feels too heavy to carry.
After that hectic, stressful journey, the band gives you a tranquil, beautiful retreat in the rustic warmth of “Slower Horses.” This beautiful indie-folk tune is driven by a charming fiddle and a soft, acoustic groove and is all about stepping away from the hectic pace of modern life. It invites us to leave behind the crazy pace of the highway and take a gentler trip where we can finally breathe, heal and savor the simple magic of being alive. The key message here is extremely reassuring: sometimes the greatest way to win the race of life is to be brave enough to get off the track totally.
On “Poppy and Harriet,” the band welcomes us in a warm hug of camaraderie and friendship. With a nostalgic, catchy rock tune, this track is a comforting reminder that we never have to carry our biggest problems alone. Through a lens of deep kindness, it demonstrates how fundamental human connection and local support may work as a shield against modern loneliness. It is a soothing promise that even when the world is cold and cruel, there is always a place we can build together with the people who care about us.
Finally, the album explores the harshest, most delicate portions of human life in the heartbreaking country-rock song “Jericho.” This song features a constant rhythm and a melancholic yet catchy chorus. It narrates the experience of someone who has reached the edge due to broken promises and a deficiency of backing. The song is a potent, tragic warning of how fragile we might be when the institutions and people around us fail us, as their sense of security crumbles away. It leaves us with a nagging, pressing question: how do we help protect and restore each other’s walls before they fall?
The great thing about Porchlight Pie is how well the tracklist aligns with our actual day-to-day lives, mirroring the emotional journey of surviving today. We begin our day with our heads spinning as we hurry through the frenzied morning, like the wild beat of “Wide Awake,” and make it through the afternoon by leaning on our messy, flawed relationships, finding strength in “We’re Better When We’re Broken.”
When the pressure of noon gets too great, we instinctively want a quiet period to disconnect and slow down, like “Slower Horses,” before coming home to find consolation in our family and friends, building the supportive network of “Poppy and Harriet.” And even when late-night concerns creep in and our exterior barriers seem ready to shatter like “Jericho,” the album reminds us that we are never truly alone in the dark.
To get the utmost best out of this album, we suggest listening to it during a peaceful evening as the sun starts to set. Grab a warm drink, sit on a porch or by a window, and allow the rich sounds of violin and acoustic guitar wash over you in the mellow glow of evening. Trickshooter Social Club has completed a beautiful, grounded masterpiece. By looking at our dirty reality with entire honesty and amazing kindness, they remind us that no matter how rocky the road, no matter how dark the night, we can get through almost anything if we keep stumbling ahead together. The radiance of this porch light beckons everyone home.
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