The Room in the Recording: Rustic Glory, Mastered at Third Man, and the Four-Year Plan Happy Curmudgeons Built Around It
One Song Mastered in Detroit Became an Award Winner, an Album Track and Red Vinyl
The last room Rustic Glory passed through was the mastering room at Third Man Records in Detroit, where Bill Skibbe mastered the song. Since then, the metro Detroit band Happy Curmudgeons have kept that one acoustic rock recording working for four years. Happy Curmudgeons released Rustic Glory as a single in 2022, and it won a Gold W.A.M. Award for Best Americana Song. It then joined the 2024 album 2nd Chances, which is now on red vinyl.
Happy Curmudgeons’ Rustic Glory sits in the acoustic playlist below, and the Happy Curmudgeons artist profile collects the band’s full run of coverage. Rustic Glory reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Hit play on the song, then keep reading for the plan behind it.
Happy Curmudgeons Released Rustic Glory as a 2022 Single, Then Carried It Onto the 2024 Album
The Plan
Happy Curmudgeons began in 2015 as a group of friends. Their approach to Rustic Glory has been patient rather than loud. Dave Hamilton wrote the song, sings it and plays the acoustic guitar underneath. Producer Mark Byerly then shaped the arrangement around a guest ensemble.
That ensemble carries real weight. Billy Cox, who played bass in Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys, is on bass. Bobby Balderrama of ? & The Mysterians plays lead guitar. Jim “Moose” Brown, whose credits include Bob Seger and Vince Gill, plays Hammond B3. Meanwhile, Todd Glass, who has played with Robert Gordon and Link Wray, is on drums. Josh Ford and Joel Bunkowske engineered the sessions.
The plan around that recording has run in stages. Each stage gave the song a new way to reach listeners, and none of them replaced the one before.
The Release
Rustic Glory first came out as a single in July 2022. That year it won a Gold W.A.M. Award in the Americana/Folk category. On 26 July 2024 it returned as one of ten original tracks on 2nd Chances, released through Spectra Music Group. The band’s Facebook page now describes Happy Curmudgeons as a Spectra Music Group recording act. The album’s other guests include saxophonist Dave McMurray, courtesy of Blue Note Records, and Pepe’ Espinosa, who has played with B.B. King.
Then, on 1 February 2025, the band added an official music video for the song. It runs four minutes and 45 seconds.
Rustic Glory Reaches Listeners Through Spotify, an Official Video, Red Vinyl and the Press
The Channels
Streaming is the main channel. On Spotify, Rustic Glory sits at the top of the band’s popular tracks, ahead of Be Kind. The official video is the second channel, and on YouTube it has passed 480,000 views.
Vinyl is the third. 2nd Chances is available on a limited red vinyl pressing made at Third Man Records, and the band sells copies directly for $25 plus $10 for shipping. Press is the fourth. Headbangers News in Brazil covered the single on 4 July 2023, and Allen Peterson Reviews reviewed it that December.
Who Rustic Glory Is For
Listeners raised on The Allman Brothers Band will know the sound of a Hammond B3 under a lead guitar, since Gregg Allman’s organ sat under the twin guitars of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. Rustic Glory pairs Brown’s organ with Balderrama’s lead in the same way. Similarly, fans of the acoustic-led country rock that Eagles made their calling card with Take It Easy in 1972 will find familiar ground, because the song is built on Hamilton’s acoustic guitar. It suits Americana and classic rock listeners in the United States and Canada who like a story and a band that leaves room for its guests.
The Numbers to Watch on Happy Curmudgeons and Rustic Glory Four Years After the First Release
Numbers to Watch
Three figures are worth following. The first is the official video’s YouTube count, which stood at 481,753 views when this article was written. On its own, that is close to half a million. The second is the band’s Spotify audience, at about 5,100 monthly listeners. The third is the band’s own running total, which puts combined streams of Rustic Glory across Spotify and YouTube past 500,000.
The social following is larger than the streaming audience. At the time of writing, the band’s Instagram account had about 87,000 followers, its Facebook page about 34,000 and its TikTok about 30,000. Finally, the red vinyl is a limited pressing, so how long copies stay available will say something about demand beyond streaming.
AcousticMusic.News curator team: “Rustic Glory shows how far one well-recorded song can travel when a band keeps giving it new places to live. Four years on, the acoustic guitar Dave Hamilton recorded is still the centre of the track, and every guest plays around it.”
Where to Hear Happy Curmudgeons Rustic Glory and Follow the Metro Detroit Band Online
Stream Rustic Glory and follow Happy Curmudgeons on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and SoundCloud, or find the band’s music on Bandcamp.
Subscribe to the band’s YouTube channel, and keep up with Happy Curmudgeons on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X and Threads.
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