Photo by Johnathon Kelso

ATLANTA—A band of Dominican friars is making its third appearance on Billboard’s bluegrass chart with their album “Marigold.”  

The Hillbilly Thomists performed music from the album and other songs at Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta on Aug. 2 as part of a summer tour. More than 400 people attended the evening concert.  

The friars also visited Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home earlier in the day to perform for the residents there. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne provide care for men and women with incurable cancer at the home.  

Father Jonah Teller, OP, plays guitar in the band and came from a family in which “all the kids had to learn an instrument.”  

“It’s really a joy to see how it touches people,” said Father Jonah Teller, about the music.  

He recalled a couple who drove 10 hours to see The Hillbilly Thomists play in Utah. The band’s music helped them get through the dark time of their granddaughter’s battle against cancer. “It really resonated with them,” said Father Jonah. 

Father Peter Gautsch, OP, of The Hillbilly Thomists performs at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home in Atlanta in August. Their fourth album is “Marigold,” and was released in July. Photo by Johnathon Kelso

“Marigold,” the band’s fourth album was released on July 26 and debuted at number two on the Billboard bluegrass chart the following week. The friars’ 2017 and 2022 records (“The Hillbilly Thomists” and “Holy Ghost Power” were also chart-toppers.  

Father Jonah never dreamed of such accolades. “We play the music because we like to,” he said. 

At “full-strength” in the recording studio, the band has eight members; five of the musicians rotate to go on tour.  

The Dominicans, also known as the Order of Preachers, are priests who contemplate, study and preach. Proceeds from the sale of albums and merchandise, along with donations, allow the friars to produce and perform music while supporting the formation of friars at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. 

The band’s Marigold Tour included concerts in Utah, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and a performance at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.  

The band’s name is inspired by a 1955 letter in which author Flannery O’Connor wrote about her novel, “Wise Blood”  

“Everybody who has read Wise Blood thinks I’m a hillbilly nihilist, whereas I’m a hillbilly Thomist,” wrote O’Connor. The Thomist is one who follows the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas that the invisible grace of God can be at work in visible things. 

The Hawthorne Dominican Sisters and staff watch The Hillbilly Thomists perform at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home in Atlanta Aug. 2. The band presented a concert at Holy Spirit Preparatory School later that day. Photo by Johnathon Kelso

The tour provided the opportunity for the band members to have a “Flannery pilgrimage,” said Father Jonah. The friars played in Savannah, where she was born. On the way to Atlanta, they visited her family’s farm, Andalusia, and her grave in Milledgeville, where they played a couple of songs. O’Connor and her mother were parishioners of Sacred Heart Church. The author is also connected to Atlanta’s Hawthorne Dominicans, having written the introduction to the order’s “A Memoir of Mary Ann,” the story of a young girl the sisters cared for.

It was the first time for the priests to visit the sites connected to O’Connor, said Father Jonah, and she remains one of their “primary muses.”

The music of The Hillbilly Thomists is a blend of bluegrass, folk and gospel. Preachers of the Incarnation of Our Lord, the friars are also working on a Christmas album. They will play in South Bend, Indiana, and Chicago in September and for the close of the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage Sept. 28 in Washington, D.C. at the Catholic University of America Mall.  

“We’re elated to join our brother Dominican friars, as well as Catholics across the United States, for this year’s Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage,” said band member and songwriter Father Justin Bolger, OP. “It’s a tremendous blessing to perform for pilgrims in honor of Our Lady.” 

Father Bolger and Father Thomas Joseph White, OP, wrote most of the songs on the latest album. 

Father Jonah is hard-pressed to pick a favorite track from “Marigold.” Instead, he ticks off several songs that he loves including “Justify You,” “When We All Get Together” and “What Did I Do to You.” 

The friars’ music may be streamed on multiple platforms including Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify.