Any music industry types skeptical of the resurgent \u201coutlaw country\u201d genre might consider this anecdote. As musically omnivorous as I can be at times, I\u2019ve got no use at all for mainstream country; it\u2019s passionless formula dumbed down for the lowest common denominator. But Jason Isbell? Sturgill Simpson? Chris Stapleton? Now that\u2019s musical craft worth my time and attention.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a certain set of frames and themes and settings and expectations that form the vocabulary of country music. What artists like Isbell and Simpson and Stapleton do that interests me is to subvert or stretch or otherwise rebel against their limitations in interesting ways\u2014and write emotionally rich and authentic songs while doing so.<\/p>\n
Ben Bostick\u2019s self-titled debut album contains a number of familiar tropes, to be sure. Laugh-out-loud clever novelty songs, sweeping ballads, multiple references to honky tonks, and a rebellious frontier-spirit individualism at the heart of it all, for a few. But his subversive streak is right up front from the very start, when the opening number \u201cIndependence Day Eve\u201d turns out to be a song about the end of the world, a sci-fi theme right out of a progressive rock epic set to dusty acoustic guitars, melancholy piano and a piercing slide solo.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoast Of Mexico\u201d offers a fresh twist on both road songs and the all-too-familiar \u201cput another whiskey on the bar\u201d country trope, an upbeat tune with a hint of a Jimmy Buffett vibe about ditching the responsibilities of everyday life for a tent on the beach on the coast of Mexico \u201cwith a button of peyote and a little bit of Mexican snow.\u201d The George Strait \/ Hank Williams traditional-country spirit arrives full force with \u201cPaid My Dues,\u201d featuring rollicking piano, a jackrabbit beat, and a lyric about paying his dues playing in honky tonks all through Mississippi and Louisiana. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter The Rain\u201d is a rousing, gospel-tinged singalong about spiritual cleansing\u2014but, again subverting expectations, one that finds it in nature rather than the Bible: \u201cI don\u2019t know what Jesus said \/ He never spoke to me \/ But I thank the sky above \/ For pouring down her holy love \/ To save a wretch like me.\u201d Completing the first half of the album\u2014which the album art divides neatly into two segments, like a vinyl LP\u2014Bostick delivers a heartfelt, bittersweet elegy to an old love who\u2019s committed suicide, preserving memories of their years-ago connection in amber forever (\u201cPaper Football\u201d). The addition of horns in the final minute gives this beautiful tune a New Orleans funeral march feel at the end. <\/p>\n
If the latter sounds like it might call for a mid-album 180-degree tone shift to lighten the mood, Bostick agrees, hitting you next with \u201cThe Juggler,\u201d the aforementioned novelty about a rascally ne\u2019er-do-well juggling three relationships at once, featuring a full-tilt boogie beat, barrelhouse piano, and a little Elvis waver sneaking into Bostick\u2019s self-mocking vocals. Next is \u201cSweet Thursday,\u201d a gently melancholy acoustic number about meeting someone and being thunderstruck by infatuation. In case you were still wondering if the atmospheric opening featuring just voice, guitar, and harmonica was an intentional nod to Springsteen, later on there\u2019s a reference to \u201csuicide machines\u201d as the pair hits the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupposed To\u201d offers the sort of playful wisdom and clever construction that we expect from traditional country, but there\u2019s an undercurrent of real bitterness from a narrator who\u2019s followed the script life handed him, only to have his expectations go unfulfilled: \u201cWhat\u2019s all this \u2018supposed to\u2019 ever done for me?\u201d Somber barroom ballad \u201cI Should Have Been Her Man\u201d harks back to another apparent influence\u2014early Garth Brooks\u2014with its earnest, well-crafted intensity, not to mention this note-perfect observation: \u201cThese honky tonk mirrors put lines on your face.\u201d \u201cErin Is Blue\u201d closes things out, a somber, airy number drenched in equal measures of echo and regret until its booming final chorus puts an exclamation point on the album.<\/p>\n
Bostick himself rejects the \u201coutlaw country\u201d label, doesn\u2019t follow the pop-rock-leaning conventions of alt-country, and insists he\u2019s not trying to imitate classic country. His self-selected description of what he does is \u201coutsider country,\u201d and that feels on target after listening to this disc. The kinship Bostick\u2019s music has with artists like Isbell and Simpson and Stapleton is clear\u2014all are tremendously talented singer-songwriters who set deeply personal songs to the sounds that feel right at the time, often employing the musical vocabulary of classic country, but determined to blaze their own trails, individualists to the end. Count me in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10172],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-45295","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ben-bostick","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45295"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}