Two Gallants (band) the pair decided to just make music together, plugging Stephens' guitar into Vogel's bass amp in order to play bass lines with melodies. The name Two Gallants was chosen after a short story of the same name from James Joyce's "Dubliners", as both were reading the book at the time and the name "seemed obvious". With Stephens on guitar, harmonica, and lead vocals and Vogel on drums and vocals, Two Gallants began playing house shows around the Bay area and busking outside BART subway stations, particularly the stop at 16th and Mission. Two Gallants released their debut album, "The Throes",
Two Gallants (band) was released in September 2007 on Saddle Creek and debuted at number 29 on "Billboard"'s Top Heatseeker's Chart. Produced by Alex Newport, the band's eponymous album was noted for being much more sonically rich than previous albums while still retaining the same basic guitar/drum sound and storytelling themes, though "Two Gallants" has more personal themes of love, loss and absence rather than the social themes found on "What the Toll Tells". "Two Gallants" received a score of 69 out of 100 on Metacritic, "generally favorable reviews". A writer for "Alternative Press" remarked that "their take on Delta blues and twisted