While contemporary in its genre-bending breadth, this music evokes a nostalgia for an idealized imaginary past——dreamscapes of black-and-white motion pictures and crackly phonograph records——and a longing for (re)connection with family, friends, neighbors, strangers, and self.”

A new solo project by former Three Times Bad and Critters band leader Sam Caine, VAGABOND EMPIRE reimagines the Great American Songbook for a post-pandemic America. 

The massive set list of dynamic originals and revamped classics digs deep into 100+ years of the Americana tradition, including vaudeville, ragtime, Dixieland, Cotton Club, Gypsy swing, folk, blues, bluegrass, country, honkytonk, and more.

Currently in pre-production with an expected release date of early next year, VE’s debut album, “After the Plague,” is a deep-feeling song cycle that channels the confusion, fear, heartbreak, grief, compassion, hope, resilience, and joy we’ve all struggled to come to terms with—both individually and in our various communities—since March 2020.

The expansive mood suggests that redemption is possible through the power of togetherness.

ABOUT THREE TIMES BAD & CRITTERS

Epic "bluevelvetgrass" string band, Three Times Bad, and its scaled-down iteration, Critters, likened in Farce the Music to the Devil Makes Three and Shovels & Rope, were genre-bending groups that brought the "ecstatic hoedown" (SF Chronicle) of their live shows up and down the Pacific Coast for nearly a decade. Three Times Bad was a fixture on the regional festival circuit, including multiple runs at SoCal’s Ink n Iron Fest (with headliners Reverend Horton Heat, Iggy Pop, and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings), NorCal’s Humboldt Hills Hoedown (with Brothers Comatose, Hillstomp, and Dead Winter Carpenters), and San Francisco’s Hillbilly Robot (promoter Shelby Ash’s infamous annual "Urban Americana Music Event"). The band appeared at many of the Bay Area’s top music venues -- Great American Music Hall, Slim’s, Bottom of the Hill, Brick & Mortar, Café du Nord -- and supported leading indie touring acts (Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, CW Stoneking, Lydia Loveless, Old Man Markley, Larry & His Flask, Finland's Steve ‘n’ Seagulls) and world-class local groups (The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, Dirty Cello, Junk Parlor, Pine Box Boys, Mission Delirium, and many more). Their debut album, American Sojourn, was named "Album of the Week" on Mike Morrison's American Roots radio show. Ghost Town Stories documented a series of haunting live Critters performances in historic California Ghost Towns.