Progressive indie rock band Five Door Sedan pulls up to The Bounty Bar stage on July 26
by Lorne Chambers | Editor
While sports cars are known for their speed and trucks are built for their ruggedness, a sedan is in a class all by itself. Spacious, powerful, and above all, comfortable. So, it seems fitting that veteran singer/songwriter Dacota Muckey’s newest musical vehicle is named Five Door Sedan, because it’s both luxurious and stylish. If you choose to come along for a ride, you’ll quickly find yourself sinking into the plushness of the textured progressive indie rock grooves and then you’ll be surprised by its power as it turns on a dime and hits a whole other gear with soaring solos and blistering jams.
Although Muckey has been playing professionally since he was a teenager, he says this last year has been among the hardest. He’s hit the road touring, recording music, and just living that musician’s dream.
“This is defnitiely the most we’ve ever toured, most we’ve been on the road, craziest time as a band,” he says. “But we’re making new relationships with bands and venues and gaining fans.
At the time the Folly Current caught up with the busy musician, who often gigs solo and with the full quartet, he and the rest of the band were loading into The Camel, a revered rock club in Richmond, VA. before hitting the road to return to Charleston to play The Songwriters’ Soapbox at Chico Feo on Folly Beach the following night. In June alone, Five Door Sedan played shows from the Gulf Coast of Florida all the way to the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania.
Muckey was pleasantly surprised when they played the small town of Birdsboro, PA that not only did lots of people turn out to hear them play, but there were large groups of folks singing along with them. He says they’re still figuring out where their fanbase is located, outside of their current home base of Charleston and Muckey’s hometown of Indianapolis, IN.
“Our biggest markets are Charleston and Indianapolis, of course, but we’re also finding an audience in Boone, NC, Atlanta, and Athens, and starting to find a market in Raleigh,” says Muckey, who ended up moving to Charleston kind of by mistake. But he has certainly found a home here and the city seems to have taken a shine to him and his style.
In 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, Muckey says he left Indianapolis and moved to Colorado. But for whatever reason, he and the Centennial State did not see eye-to-eye and he ended up moving back to Indiana, buying an RV, and living on a farm. But then winter hit and it got cold and Muckey pointed his home on wheels south toward Florida. Along the way, he made a pitstop to play a Barn Jam at Awendaw Green and ended up parking his RV there for a bit. After about nine months of living there, he started bouncing around between Charleston and Indiana. Eventually, Muckey sold his RV and found a new home and a new ride … you might say it was a Five Door Sedan.
Okay, Okay, we’ve run with this automobile analogy about as far it will go, so let’s leave it parked right here and talk about the band.
Besides Muckey, Five Door Sedan’s current lineup includes William Sanders, Bradley Palles, and Kwame Newton. Even though they have been burning up the road for the last several months and showing no sign of slowing down, they’re also in the process of recording an album. In fact, most of the tracks are already laid as they carve out time to put the finishing touches on them. They’re currently slowly leaking out singles every three weeks online until the album is officially out, which Muckey says should be in the fall of this year. He says there are 10 original songs on the album, many of which they are currently playing live on tour.
While no strangers to Folly Beach, Five Door Sedan will make their Bounty Bar debut on Friday, July 26 and then head downtown to play Bounty’s big sister The Royal American the following night.
