featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
March 16, 2025
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
If You Only Listen To One Record This Week
Last we heard from Jason Boland and co., they had delivered a 2021 concept album centered around a story of alien abduction. Now a Texas resident, the songwriter and bandleader has curated a rewarding discography that ably occupies the frontiers of country music's hybrid sub-genres. Their eleventh record, The Last Kings Of Babylon, returns the act back down to earth with a Lloyd Maines-produced selection of songs just this side of country.
Since his debut on 1999's Pearl Snaps, Boland has presented his songs in a classic country baritone, one of the most capable singers in the genre. Even a significant medical setback wasn't enough to sour his vocal appeal, as heard on "Next To Last Hank Williams". The opener establishes a couple themes from Last Kings: Most notably the band's commitment to a life on the road. Granted, it's far from an original stance, but Boland's songs manage to avoid many of the tropes and cliches to which much red dirt and Texas country tend to fall. "Next To Last" is good-natured and sharp with self-deprecation, asking When he's gone will anybody care? Fast forward to the record's end, the swaying "Irish Goodbye", and the singer's recognizing when it's time to move on: A welcome's been worn / Like a jacket that's torn / I believe I should be moving on.
Maines and Boland spent just two days recording Last Kings, a fact that belies the album's terrific live sound. The driving "Truest Colors" showcases Nick Gedra's mandolin and one of the songwriter's most melodic choruses. The Stragglers' cohesion shines through as well on their run through fellow Okie Randy Crouch's rowdy "Ain't No Justice", featuring AJ Slaughter's thick guitars racing alongside Andrew Bair's electric keys. The ensemble's bluegrass chops shine on "Farmall", with close harmonies, steel guitar and Gedra's fiddle. The weed-forward "High Time" (Let's put some smoke up in the air) is immediately juxtaposed against the slower tempoed "One Law At a Time", with Boland boasting that I don't break more than one law at a time, whether that's honoring his marital vows or keeping his dog on a leash.
In addition to their note-by-note recitation of the Crouch track, the Stragglers add a few other covers from their repertoire, including "Drive", originally by Jason Eady, Jamie Lynn Wilson, and Kelly Mickwee. On Last Kings, the tempo is goosed just a touch, and Gedra's mandolin shares space with an organ and layers of electricity that add a low-end thump. Jimmy LaFave's Oklahoma classic "Buffalo Return To the Plains", is given its due respect as well. The new project honors Jason Boland's commitment to adding an extra jolt of live energy to the studio set.
I've been here before with one eye on the door, Boland sings, Because I know how this story will end. The road veteran hardly sounds tired and worn on Last Kings Of Babylon, even as he knows his way across the country's blacktop grid. On "Take Me Back To Austin", he acknowledges that he can become stir crazy when he's holed up too long in his rural home. Even as Jason Boland & the Stragglers take their well-earned victory lap after more than a quarter century of this stuff, their eleventh studio collection demonstrates the life left in their tank.
... if you bookmark only one new release calendar this week, you could do worse than A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our reverently updated run through what's on the horizon. This week, we've added news of upcoming stuff from Eli Paperboy Reed, Chad Price Peace Coalition, Florry, Matt Daniel, Heavy Diamond Ring and several more.
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ROUTES-cast March 16, 2025
^ Jason Boland & the Stragglers, "Next To Last Hank Williams" Last Kings Of Babylon (Proud Souls, 25)
- Charley Crockett, "Never No More" Lonesome Drifter (Island, 25)
- Kristina Murray, "Fool's Gold" Little Blue (Normaltown, May 9)
- Cody Jinks, "Put the Whiskey Down" single (Late August, 25) D
- Morgan Wade, "East Coast" single (Ladylike, 25) D
- Sterling Drake, "In My Dreams" Shape I'm In (Calusa, May 2) D
- John Howie Jr & Rosewood Bluff, "Who Needs the Neon" Return Of ... (Schoolkids, Apr 18) D
- Tobacco City, "Buffalo" Horses (Scissor Tail, 25)
- Paradise Motel Lounge, "Dead and Rotting" Welcome To the ... (Halloween On Raspberry Hill, 25)
- Palmyra, "Palm Readers" Restless (Oh Boy, Mar 28)
- Wilder Blue, "When the Last Light Fades" Still In the Runnin' (Hill Country, 25)
- Brown Horse, "Radio Free Bolinas" All the Right Weaknesses (Loose, Apr 4)
- Fust, "What's His Name" Big Ugly (Dear Life, 25)
- Florry, "Hey Baby" Sounds Like ... (12XU, May 23) D
- Tony Kamel, "Makin' It Work" We're All Gonna Live (Blue Corn, Apr 17)
- Ruston Kelly, "Slide" Dirt Emo Vol 2 EP (Rounder, 25)
- Jason Isbell, "Crimson and Clay" Foxes In the Snow (Southeastern, 25)
- Hannah Cohen, "Dusty" Earthstar Mountain (Congrats, Mar 28)
- Joe Pug, "Flood In Color (live)" Lie At the Old Town School Of Folk Music (Pug, Apr 18)
- Matt Pond PA, "Bring On the Beginning" single (Sonder House, 25) D
- Jake Xerxes Fussell, "Close My Eyes" single (Fat Possum, 25) D
- Judy Blank, "Pony" Lil' Mood EP (Rounder, 25)
- Son Of the Velvet Rat, "Inland Empire (ft Ghost and the Machine)" single (Rat, 25) D
- Pearl Charles, "Middle Of the Night" Desert Queen (Taurus Rising, Apr)
- Neil Francis, "Broken Glass (ft Say She She)" Return To Zero (ATO, 25)
- Eli Paperboy Reed, "Stop Talking In Your Sleep" Sings Walkin' and Talkin' and Other Smash Hits! (Yep Roc, Jun 6) D
- Ben Kweller, "Depression (ft Coconut Records)" Cover the Mirrors (Noise, May 30)
- Bon Iver, "If Only I Could Wait (ft Danielle Haim)" SABLE,fABLE (Jagjaguwar, Apr 11)
- Florist, "Moon Sea Devil" Jellywish (Double Double Whammy, Apr 4) D
- Drayton Farley, "My Mind Is a Radio" single (Hargrove, 25) D
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