Edmonton’s The Bobby Tenderloin Universe is a band, a community and a movement, but most of all it’s an excuse to don your western wear and give yourself over to the song and dance at the heart of every BTU show. Bobby enraptures his audiences with his deep, rich voice and thoughtful, tender lyrics, rustling up a fresh new take on the old country we all love. Some say he exhibits the sincerity of Johnny Cash, the wit of Roger Millar, and vocal stylings and production sensibilities of Lee Hazlewood. He and his band are lifelong friends and it shows in the way they bring the songs to life.
Their 2019 self-titled debut album led to tours with Orville Peck and Charley Crockett. The Bobby Tenderloin Universe is now releasing their sophomore full-length, Satan is a Woman; a self-described “woman” themed album that includes songs about Bobby’s grandmother, romantic lovers, death, loss and guilt.
The record’s focus track, “Marigold,” features a divergent non-4/4 timing and is a voyeuristic song about yearning love set in a garden. Bobby uses floral imagery to create a metaphor relating the natural beauty of marigolds with the euphoria two lovers feel when close to each other.
Searching for self growth, I wrote [Satan is a Woman] in order to experience catharsis. I hoped to achieve a deeper level of ego death by letting the songs filter through me, and catharsis by putting them back into the zeitgeist from whence they came. – Bobby Tenderloin