In the rolling Hocking Hills of Southeast Ohio, the trees outnumber human existence even on the busiest spring day. Even on trips that require dodging strollers and dogs, the area gives moments of respite for weary Columbus city dwellers. If you happened to find yourself on a trail or in a cave on Saturday, and if you listened closely enough, you might have heard something beyond the rustling of leaves in the breeze or a bird singing its beautiful song. You might have heard the Indigo Girls and Brandi Carlisle. Or in this case, the Ohioan turned Chicagoan turned Columbusite Moe Reen singing Indigo Girls and Brandi Carlisle songs.
A few hours later, after Moe Duffy aka Moe Reen and drummer West Taylor finished serenading a group of lesbians at a 50th birthday party in a cabin down in the hills, Moe Reen and their full band traded those serene surroundings for the Rambling House stage on Hudson St. Although the crowd and reason for being there were not the same, the joy followed the band north.
It would be great to be one of those folks who say they have no regrets in their life, but that is unrealistic, or maybe the signs of a well-adjusted person? Either way, a regret hanging over my own concert going was not seeing Moe Reen play live over the last two years, and it was not for lack of opportunity. From a number of Rambling House appearances to the final day of Nelsonville in 2025, where I attended the first two days but had to depart early Sunday, the number of missed concerts added to the upset.
Saturday night at Rambling House alleviated that pain.
If country music is not your thing, I feel sorry for you. Saturday’s lineup was an all-star cast of local Columbus Americana and Midwestern music, with some out of town folk mixed in for good measure.
Under the disco ball of one of Columbus’ more comfortable venues, concertgoers had the pleasure of seeing The Hen & the Crow, Beck! And Moe Reen squeezed into a tight two-hour window. As the early show of a Rambling House doubleheader, it gave enough time to enjoy the music and then sit back and ponder it all. It was a late afternoon of songs about pain, love and the analogy of sniffing someone’s butt like a dog.
I brought a friend to Rambling House for the lineup, despite his leanings away from the genre. For article purposes, we will call him Shane. Over the last year, I have dragged him two hours to see Willi Carlisle and much closer when we saw Jordan Smart and friends in our own backyard. A night with Moe Reen, Becks! and The Hen & the Crow further pushed the needle for Shane. That needle of accepting what some believe does not fit in today’s music. It takes the listener further away from songs about colorful cups to hold a lite beer and closer to the worker’s plight, anti-fascist, country music that the fluff of today’s “country” music sits atop of without looking down.
The Hen and the Crow are Caroline and Wesley Crow, a married couple that brought an Appalachian, story-telling, style of country music to the evening. For their set, the Crows included much of Moe Reen’s backing band with drums, an upright bass and fiddle. Over the short opening set, the duo sang a lot about their travels to the mysterious desert lights of Marfa Texas and a trip to the Beaufort, South Carolina kazoo factory and museum, complete with a custom kazoo jam in the song that followed.
Watching the band play is watching a group of people exude joy. From laughs in the rhythm section between Taylor on drums and Julia Crow on bass to Caroline who cannot help but smile when she steps onto the stage. The duo, and band, brought stories to life, seemingly transported into tales they told. It was not all plastic instruments and UFO’s shining their beacons but songs that hit close to what is happening in the Ohio Valley and beyond.
Take “Cardinal Power Plant,” a lamentation in gothic Americana form about the destruction of land for the purpose of powering infrastructure. In it, the couple sang about the power plant aptly named Cardinal Power Plant, despite it destroying the home of its avian namesake.
Back in April, the Crow duo stepped on stage at Natalie’s to back fellow country folk singer Jodi Jones, giving harmony to the acoustic set. Saturday, hearing The Hen & the Crow in its full glory led to discontent, namely because there is not more music to hear from the duo outside of the couple of tracks they released on Columbus’ area Americana and Country label Space Canoe Records.
Up next was Becks! Also known as Becks Lipshultz. A quick aside on the second set of the night. Well, it is more about the people in the venue than the music that followed.
Local music is fantastic. Every city needs it. Rambling House plays a lot of bands that call Central Ohio home, and the gratitude of its revival after near closure in 2025 is a testament to the building’s existence. With all that said, the disrespect shown to Lipshultz from the friends and family who came to see the concert was appalling.
Now, every concert has those folks who do not realize that there is someone pouring themselves out on stage. In a larger venue, it can be isolated and mostly ignored. When nearly 20 people are in the back of Rambling House talking, within roughly 10 yards of the stage, it ruins things for those in the audience who do not think everything revolves around themselves.
This reads as “old man yells at cloud” as Abe Simpson could get, but there is no hiding in that venue. I stood a few feet back from the stage and was right next to the bar, which is only a few feet inside the door of the building that is roughly the size of a mobile home. Don’t worry though, because the obliviously loud concertgoer inside of you is in luck!
A great feature of Rambling House is the outdoor patio. Saturday was a beautiful day, where the rain that bookended the holiday weekended gave a short reprieve. If you want to chat during a set, go outside. Take a note from the other performers of the night who stood or sat right near the stage and enjoyed Becks! and their treasure trove of what they call their “sad, silly little songs.”
From West Virginia, Lipshultz, who goes by Becks! with an exclamation point because there is already a musician named Becks, sang folk songs about union organizing, relationships and a “lesbian murder ballad.” While the tone of the songs are all singer/songwriter-esque in the simplicity of a person standing on stage with an acoustic guitar, the emotion is what captured attention.
Lipshultz played tracks from their new album “Boxer in the Ring,” along with the unreleased “Mary Ann” murder ballad. During the seething frustration of trying to give undivided attention to Becks! while many in the crowd felt like disrespecting the touring musician, being on the edge of those in the crowd that cared and those that did not, it was difficult to capture every piece of meaning and passion inside Lipshultz’ songs, but their voice set the performance apart.
While the backing music of the sets before and afterwards gave vibrance to those acts, the work of Becks! was more than enough. It is a shame that many did not get to appreciate it the same way.
At the end, they admitted that all of their songs are sad in lyrics and tone or as Lipshultz put it “Oops, all bummers,” but walked away from their time on stage with a repeat back that finally silenced the crowd, or maybe it was the yelling of “hey hey!” that miraculously drowned them out.
Either way, despite them not being a local act, hearing it felt like home.
To end the afternoon, Moe Reen took the stage with Taylor and Crow back on drums and bass and Alex Estrada joined on pedal steel. To start the show, Duffy asked the crowd for an adjective and noun for some pre-show Mad Libs to introduce the backup band as the Smelly Porcupines.
On stage, the five-person band looked well rehearsed after 11 days on the road on a recent midwest tour. Outside of Duffy starting one song on the wrong line and quickly fixing it, the music was on point and even the alternated bobs up and down between Moe Reen and Crow on bass were well coordinated.
Moe Reen and the Smelly Porcupines played songs off the 2025 LP “Scribbled Line.” For the uninitiated, recording of “Scribbled Line” closely resembles what the songs sound like live. Taylor told Columbus Calling in an article about Space Canoe Records that with Duffy’s distinct voice is made to be the focal point.
Someone who avoids the genre, or stick to radio country, may hear Moe Reen and think it was a song from the first half of the 20th century. Their voice is more of a swoon. Think of Patsy Cline or early Elvis Presley.
However, the lyrics live in 2026. Moe Reen’s catalog includes a bisexual love song “I’m Yers.”
“Please believe me
When I promise I’ll return
‘Cause I could’ve been his
I could’ve been hers
But I’m happy to say that I’m yers”
Then there is “Poor Old Dog,” a song that is all about waiting for your love to return. In it, Moe Reen relates to a dog at home waiting to see their owner. The unbridled happiness when the dog owner finally returns, a reunited love even if it only lasted the time it takes to get to the grocery store and back. It describes the kind of connection to another person like a dog with lines like “When am I gonna sniff your butt again? (Nobody smells like you).” They are lines that anyone who has ever owned a dog or fell in love relates to quickly and that picture especially disarms the audience, forcing laughs out of anyone who is not expecting it, and most of those who already know its on its way.
However, the song of the night has to go to “Goodbye Kathleen,” which is a letter to their pre-transition self. When the phrase “dead name” comes up with someone in the trans community, it is an insult to ignore and dehumanize a person’s existence. It is a way to disregard the inner workings of a person who made a decision to be their authentic self. That is not the intent of “Goodbye Kathleen.” Moe Reen takes their pre-transition name and fondly bids it farewell.
“Goodbye Kathleen
I still see your pretty white dress in my dreams
It flutters in the wind with other clothes that did not fit
Goodbye KathleenI am you and you are me
But there are differences that others need to see
So you may fade from my reflection, it’s these words that I must breathe
Goodbye Kathleen”
The courage and trust that Duffy has in sharing their story with the public is already an accomplishment, but it is also an all-around great song. Moe Reen submitted it for the 2026 NPR Tiny Desk Concert competition, which is up now on YouTube.
Moe Reen’s clear joy on stage continued what Caroline Crow dubbed the “night of queer country.” All three sets showed what is possible when a genre lives in the people who write the songs and live the lives that influence the work.
Now the only regret is having to wait to see them all play again.
