No matter what I might claim otherwise, I kind of like country music \u2013 as long as it\u2019s real<\/i> country music with some modicum of intelligence to it \u2013 no Toby Keith right-wing dumbassery, no misogynistic crap, and for Johnny Cash\u2019s sake, no pop music in disguise.<\/i> If there\u2019s not at least a little steel guitar or fiddle, you ain\u2019t doin\u2019 it right.<\/p>\n
With that said, I\u2019ve become a fan of Austin, Texas singer-songwriter Sam Riggs. He does basic, straightforward country music that manages to avoid being ingenuous or simple-minded; while he may still hit some of the common genre tropes, he presents them with maturity and complexity. His first CD, Outrun The Sun<\/i>, remains my favorite.<\/p>\n
While Riggs is a traditionalist in many senses, there are still strong rock influences on this album. In his own words, \u201c\u2018I grew up with George Jones and Three Doors Down at the same time,\u201d Riggs says with a shrug. \u201cSo many people did.\u2019\u201d Of course, this is also a guy who climbs mountains for fun, so it makes sense he just doesn’t care what anyone thinks about his occasional genre dabbling \u2013 dabbling that still, somehow, ends up sounding authentic.<\/p>\n
Outrun The Sun<\/i> is a sampler box of hook-laden, enjoyable country with lyrics head and shoulders above most of the crap infesting the radio airwaves nowadays. It starts off with \u201cLong Shot,\u201d a song about taking chances for love, then swings into the banjo-laced two-step of \u201cCome Back Down.\u201d \u201cFire And Dynamite\u201d is just that. The crown jewels, though, are \u201cCollide,\u201d \u201cAngola\u2019s Lament,\u201d and \u201cChange.\u201d \u201cCollide\u201d is about two people who get a second (third?) chance, \u201cChange\u201d is a heartfelt ballad about…well\u2026change. Then there\u2019s \u201cAngola\u2019s Lament,\u201d a dark and brooding storyteller\u2019s song about love, betrayal, and revenge that will leave you with chills.<\/p>\n
If Outrun The Sun<\/i> lacks anywhere, it\u2019s in the element of cohesion. Riggs is still finding his voice here, and there are a few rough musical edges that needed sanded off; \u201cOilfield Town\u201d could be a Toby Keith song, and \u201cHold On And Let Go\u201d drifts too close to clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n
On the whole, however, Outrun The Sun<\/i> is a fine debut album, a fine piece of modern country, and worth listening to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10490],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45842","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sam-riggs","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45842","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45842"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45842"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}