Lindsay Ell and Kristian Bush Team Up For New Duo

The Speakeasy Social Club is a special passion project.

Written by Lauren Laffer
Lindsay Ell and Kristian Bush Team Up For New Duo
NASHVILLE, TN - AUGUST 02: Kristian Bush of Sugarland, and Lindsay Ell perform at Bridgestone Arena on August 2, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for Big Machine Label Group)

Lindsay Ell and Kristian Bush are thick as thieves after spending many months together in the recording studio working on Ell’s debut album, The Project. Bush served as producer, pushing Ell to the limits and outside of her musical comfort zone.

Because of the hours spent together, the two formed a fierce bond over life and music. With that solid foundation, they combined forces for a band called the Speakeasy Social Club. The idea came when the two played the Country2Country Festival in the United Kingdom.

Lindsay Ell and Kristian Bush; Photo credit: Nathan Zucker

“We were like we’re both on the bill together, so why don’t we just hop on stage at the same time? We just won’t make a setlist, and we’ll just have fun. And so we did just that,” Ell explained on the ACM Honors red carpet.”I didn’t know the next song he was gonna play. He didn’t know the next song I was gonna play. We played different songs and each other’s songs. It was just purely for the joy of playing music. It was the most fun I’ve had on stage in I can remember. Both of us were like, we need to figure out a way where we can bring this back home and do this on a regular basis.”

Since returning home from the UK, the two have continued to pursue music on their own, while also coming together for their passion project.

“We’ve been doing these pop-up shows. Our rules are every show is for free. It’s only announced hours before we’ll show up in a city and do one. It’s purely for the enjoyment of music,” she shared. “And it’s just been so, so, so much fun.”

As for the Speakeasy Social Club hitting the studio together? Well, it’s in the talks, but nothing on the radar quite yet.

“You know that’s something we’ve definitely tossed around since we will be in the studio. I’m sure at some point we may do that. For the time being, we’ve been recording our sets live ’cause we never know what’s gonna happen. And so we’ve been recording our shows live and at some point are figure out how to bootleg secretly under a speakeasy password probably,” she teased.

In the meantime, Bush will continue his time out on the road with his Sugarland band partner, Jennifer Nettles, while Ell has dates scheduled with the duo in the states and with Keith Urban in Canada.