Glory N’ Perfection Began Accidentally — And Now Its First Album Is Dropping

"I was just stuck at home, and I started writing goofy country songs," says singer and keyboardist Taylor Fogel

Jun 30, 2023 at 10:24 am

Courtesy Glory N' Perfection

Glory N' Perfection.

How to describe the St. Louis-based based band Glory N’ Perfection on the occasion of the release of its debut album? The easiest thing would be to call the group a five-piece country-western outfit. But that would bely how strange its songs are. You might call it goofy. But that would be an injustice to the members’ songwriting acumen and talent as musicians. It’s hard to say.

Take for example the single “Makin’ Eyes.” It’s a sub three minute, quietly poignant ode to charged eye contact between a motorist and pedestrian waiting to cross the street at an intersection. Like many a country-western tune, it’s a love song. But it’s the shortest romance of all time. Singer Nick Zengerling (aka Zeng) channels something like David Lindley’s vocal performance on the Jackson Browne song “Stay,” with more than a dash of the knowing irreverence of a Ween or Dan Reeder. The guitar pickin’ and fiddle playing behind him is immaculate.

If any of the above-referenced artists are up your alley, there’s a very good chance Glory N’ Perfection will be too. Give them a listen, which you can like never before now that its album, Country Music, is available on all major streaming services starting today.

To celebrate the album’s release as well as the release of the music video for “Makin’ Eyes,” the band is playing back-to-back shows on Cherokee Street Saturday: Yaquis at 5:30 p.m. (with Miss Jubilee), followed by the Whiskey Ring at 8:30 p.m. (with Still Animals). Both shows are free to attend.

We caught up with Glory N’ Perfection keyboardist and singer Taylor Fogel to tell us about what all the band has been up to. This conversation has been edited for clarity and for length.

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Can you tell me a little bit about the origin story of the band?

We started early, early pandemic. Everything was shut down. I started writing these goofy country songs. I've always been a fan of country music, but I’d never been involved in making country music. I'd always been a rock & roll guy. I was just stuck at home, and I started writing goofy country songs, and then I showed it to a couple buddies, and then they started writing songs, and before we knew it, we were making home recordings, demos and whatnot. We had amassed a collection of 40-some odd songs. Eventually it became a band.

Who are some reference points for you guys? Who would you say, “If you like this person, you should go check out Glory N’ Perfection?”

Ween is probably the obvious one. Really, just country music in general. I like country music with a humorous bent to it. There's lots of humor throughout the canon of country music.

Of all the songs to make a video out of, why did you choose "Makin' Eyes"?

I think it was because somebody had the idea of using Zeng's truck. He drives that chicken truck for his job. And that's what the song was about. I think he had the idea to shoot a video with the truck.

At what point did this group transition from a pandemic era project to like, “We're making albums, we're shooting videos, we're a bonafide band?”

We got asked to do this Live on the Internet thing at the Sinkhole. They asked us to do it, and we weren't a band. We were just playing around at home. So we threw the band together with like a month's notice, literally. We went and did it and then just kept doing it, and it became a thing.