Farce the Music: Shooter Jennings

Showing posts with label Shooter Jennings. Show all posts

Dec 22, 2021

Untrue Christmas Facts: George, Tammy, Waylon, Jessi, Shooter

Dec 10, 2021

Album Review / Jason Boland & The Stragglers / The Light Saw Me

By Megan Bledsoe

The idea that Jason Boland’s latest album is a concept record about alien abduction will be polarizing to many. It will be met with varying degrees of curiosity, suspicion, and skepticism. There will likely be those whose first inclination is to ignore it, if not because of its December release date, then certainly because of the strange narrative of a cowboy who is abducted by aliens in the 1890’s and transported a century into the future. But to overlook this album would be a disservice to both the listener and to the project itself, for not only has Jason Boland succeeded to pull off something entirely unique to country music with the telling of this story, he has also managed to do so in a remarkably accessible and compelling manner. This album is special both because it dares to tackle these subjects at all and because it is about much more than UFO’s and time travel; rather, this is simply the lens through which our narrator examines the world as he embarks on the existential search for truth and meaning that is common to us all.

As noted in “Transmission Out,” many of us are confronted, at some point in our lives, with the unexplainable. These confrontations can come in the form of religious experiences, visions, or, in our narrator’s case, the life-changing encounter of a mysterious light shining through the trees one night. “I saw the light, but more importantly, the light saw me,” Boland explains in the title track. The narrator is forced to reevaluate his view of the supernatural, and despite his warnings in “A Tornado & the Fool,” no one around him seems to pay attention. Nevertheless, he remains convinced of the things he saw, at once awed and horrified by this new reality, as conveyed in the stirring opener, “Terrifying Nature.”

Our hero, however, is concerned with far more than just convincing us of his encounter with the supernatural. Perhaps most troubling are his observations of modern society. Once he has arrived in the future, he is dismayed to learn that it is not the paradise he had imagined it might be. He comments on the ghosts of people “staring down at their phones” in the atmospheric “Straight Home” and on “Here for You,” he laments the people’s lack of care for the amount of oil they burn. On the same track, he asks himself, “Could humanity be in decline?” The future, it seems, is a lonely, godforsaken place, and this characterization of it by an outsider from the past paints a much starker picture than that which might have been conveyed had Boland chosen to write more directly about these subjects.

Throughout the journey, however, the one thing that seems to remain constant and true, even across the barriers of space and time, is love. The narrator promises that he will always be there for the ones he loves on “Here for You,” as he journeys away from them into the unknown. On “Straight Home,” he is simply looking for a way to reverse this course and return to the world he knew and the people he loves. The cover of Bob Childers’ “Restless Spirits” fits flawlessly into this narrative as well, as if the account of a wandering soul who is strengthened by the vision of his wife in the kitchen so that he can go on another day without her was especially written for the lost, lonesome cowboy of The Light Saw Me.

Sonically, this album contains some of the most engaging material from Jason Boland & the Stragglers in many years. Such a tale as this one is rarely communicated through the medium of country music, but, like all Jason Boland albums, this one is decidedly traditional, with plenty of fiddle and steel to go around. However, The Light Saw Me is also unique in that it captures more of the live feel of a Boland concert, with more extended solos and participation from the Stragglers than what is found on most of their studio albums. The Shooter Jennings influence in the production is evident and welcome as well, adding a darker edge and more of a country rock element to certain tracks. The extended outro of "The Tornado & the Fool” perfectly captures both the chaos of a tornado touching down and the battle raging within our narrator’s mind about the reality of what he has seen. The electric guitar riff on “Terrifying Nature” cannot be described as anything other than catchy, and the atmospheric feel of “Straight Home” enhances the desperation and loneliness conveyed by the lyrics. It is as though Boland, the Stragglers, and Jennings recognized instinctively that in order to draw listeners in, given the subject matter, extra care would need to be taken to ensure the songs were accessible musically, and indeed, that extra care is the intangible thing which elevates this album from a good one to an excellent, rare piece of art.

The endeavor to produce a concept record about alien abduction and time travel is something to be commended in and of itself, and especially the aspiration to render such a record within the scope of country music. Jason Boland & the Stragglers not only succeed in their endeavor, but also manage to deliver an album that is highly accessible, both musically and lyrically. The Light Saw Me is more than the story of a hapless cowboy forcibly being uprooted from his homeland and thrust into an uncertain future; rather, it is the universal, compelling tale of all who have wandered through this life searching for meaning and of the kind of love which, beyond all reason and across oceans of space and time, somehow seems to endure.

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The Light Saw Me is available everywhere now.

Nov 22, 2021

YouTube Gems / Hank Jr & Shooter Jennings / "The Conversation"

Nov 18, 2021

Back to the Shooter Part 3

Nov 5, 2021

The Crud Report: November '21

May 10, 2021

Monday Morning Memes: Shooter Jennings, Kenny Chesney, Brian Kelley

Apr 15, 2021

Again, Thomas??

Jan 27, 2021

Untrue Facts: Dolly Parton, James Hetfield, etc.

Jan 21, 2021

Ted Lasso Country Reaction Gifs

When one bad pop-country artist has a hit with the least country song ever, the next bad pop-country artist is like...

Oh, did I get Russell Swindell mixed up with Jordan Rice?

Some people think Sam Hunt is country and...

(they're all wrong)

Wanna hear a song from a guy who a major paper describes as the next emo-rap country star?

Me after getting in a Twitter spat with Blake Shelton

When the car beside you is blasting Kane Brown

When some Aaron Lee Tasjan comes on

When Shooter Jennings sees his manager for the first time in a while

Dec 30, 2020

Trading Places Country Reaction Gifs

**foul language warning**

♫ ♬ The boys get out and the room fills up with law ♫ ♬

You're 32 and still listen to Dustin Lynch?

Jive turkeys think Sam Hunt is country

♫ ♬ Well I tell ya I've fought tougher men

but I really can't remember when ♫ ♬

When Mr. Cyrus finally takes a shower

When somebody wearing a Kane Brown shirt wants you to hurry up with the phone

Shooter Jennings be like...nah, gunslinger

And finally...