The Tin Men came together organically at the Circle Bar on Magazine Street around 2002, when Alex McMurray was holding down a regular gig there and Washboard Chaz Leary and Matt Perrine sat in. McMurray had played with both men before, but never simultaneously. The sound galvanized immediately, and after the show — and a beer or two — the three had decided to form a permanent band. Since each played a metal instrument, the name picked itself.
The instrumentation is deceptively radical. McMurray plays a resophonic guitar — a steel resonator instrument from the 1920s whose piercing sound was originally designed to compete with brass. Perrine's sousaphone is the circular, late 19th-century cousin of the tuba, here deployed as a melodic bass voice of extraordinary flexibility. Leary's custom washboard rig is fitted with vegetable cans, a wood block, and a desk bell; his style draws on old-time jazz and blues rather than Cajun music, and he is as much a vocalist as a percussionist. The trio's aesthetic, as Perrine has described it: "WOMP and then there's space" — attack without sustain, clockwork precision, room for the music to breathe.
The Tin Men held a regular Wednesday residency at dba on Frenchmen Street for many years before moving to Fritzel's Jazz Pub on Bourbon Street, where they now hold a Monday night residency. They have been perennial favorites at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and have toured nationally and internationally since their founding. Their sixth record, Hit It! (2023), found them ranging across Funkadelic, The Kinks, and Levon and the Hawks alongside McMurray originals, and was released on vinyl in 2024 — their first LP release.
The three members bring deep individual careers to the group. McMurray leads multiple bands and holds a legendary Tuesday residency at Buffa's. Perrine is one of New Orleans' most sought-after sousaphonists, performing across dozens of ensembles. Leary fronts the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio and is a fixture of the city's traditional blues scene. OffBeat Magazine has called the Tin Men "one of the most interesting bands to emerge from New Orleans in years."
