Vandoliers: Self-Titled
Photo by Rico DeLeon
They say to rise you gotta fall. Sometimes that means it feels like the bottom is falling out and you’re losing everything. Since spring of 2020, that feeling has been common for many, and for some in the music industry, like the Vandoliers, they didn’t even know if their new self-titled album, The Vandoliers, would ever even be heard. Fast forward to 2022: Not only have they opened for Flogging Molly and Turnpike Troubadours, but they toured Europe for the first time and scored a spot on Flogging Molly’s Salty Dog Cruise. Now they’re about to release their fourth album and this may be the best album the Vandoliers have made. If you’ve ever attended a Vandoliers show, it’s a range of emotions. You’ll hear fist-pumping rowdy drinking songs, beautifully crafted story songs and heart-stirring ballads. Listening to the new album, The Vandoliers, is no different. Upon first listen, you pick your favorites, then you listen again to the lyrics and instrumentals and it’s likely that new favorites will emerge. Maybe it’s the hot licks from Travis Curry’s fiddle, the keyboard stylings of Cory Graves or the distinctive voice of Josh Fleming, that make it hard to pick just one. Whatever it is, it’s an album you’re going to want to let live on your turntable for the foreseeable future.
Although The Vandoliers still follows in the rowdy footsteps of its predecessors, somehow this album seems different, perhaps it’s the exploration of a different side of the band. “The Vandoliers is a complete deconstruction and restructure of what this band is. I feel like we pushed ourselves as musicians, I pushed myself as a writer and I think we pushed what this band could be. Songs like “The Light House,” “Before the Fall,” “Better Run,” and “Steer Me Wrong” are directions we have never explored, "says Fleming. One could argue that the birth of Ruby (Fleming’s daughter) in 2020, brought about a new side of his songwriting, after all “The Light House” is written for her, but there are other forces at play as well. The fear that nothing would return to how it was prompted Fleming to write, “Every Saturday Night,” a wistful look at the days gone by that we all took for granted.
“I miss the taste of whiskey
And I miss the smell of smoke
I miss the last calls at the dancehalls
I miss the last songs before they closed
Used to sing along to Turnpike
Headin' down an FM road
I always took the long way
The sun rose before we got home”
“Before the Fall” is a top contender for one of the best songs to come out of this Texas based, cowpunk band. I cried the first time I heard it and I still cry every time I hear it, whether I’m standing in a crowd of people at a dive bar, or listening alone at home. It’s one of those rip your heart out songs that you put on repeat, just so you can feel the hurt over and over again. It was the first single that was released from the album and I think it showed the world what the Vandoliers were capable of and a taste of what was to come from this album. Josh had this to say about the meaning behind the song, “I wish I could say it was one instance in my life, but it’s really me processing some major mistakes I had made and others made to me throughout my life. I think at its core the message is “love is a choice” but in the past that choice wasn’t made. I tried to create a conversation, on one side some one is denying their feelings so they don’t have to admit they are scared to love and the other side is calling out the lies they are hearing. In the chorus, I think they both agree that without one another life isn’t worth living.”
“Wise County Friday Night” is another standout track on the album. A fantastic story song that has you wondering who the girl is in the song (it’s Lindsey, Josh’s wife, in case you need to know like I did) and it’s a song from the time the two of them began dating. “It’s one of my favorite moments in my life, taking a late-night ride to the waterside, young and in love, holding each other in the water.” It also has some of the best lyrics on the album in it, “smoke billowed out the window when we pulled up to the creek, we took off all our clothes and ran into the stream, our legs danced under water, waltzing with the tide, my hands drew constellations up your back and down your spine.” Fleming continues to grow as a songwriter and the visuals that accompany the lyrics are a testament to that fact.
The Vandoliers are known for their rowdy, feel-good songs and if you’re worried they’ve moved away from that, don’t worry, you’ve still got your pick of several on the album. “Better Run,” which starts out with a voicemail from none other than Marty Stuart before revving up into what feels like the beginning of an 80’s rock anthem, or “I Hope Your Heartache’s a Hit,” a “swinging, swaggering tribute to a one-night-stand" written by multi-instrumentalist Cory Graves, or “Bless Your Drunken Heart,” the perfect blend of Irish drinking song meets Texas cowpunk. It’s no surprise this song has quickly become a crowd favorite.
I’ve been a fan of the Vandoliers for the last four years and I’ll sing their praises to anyone I can. They could put out a terrible album and I’d still support them, but luckily this isn’t the case. This album is fantastic and it’s time that the rest of the world knows what some of us have known for years: that the Vandoliers are one of the most talented and entertaining bands to come out of the state of Texas and they are primed and ready to skyrocket to the top. This album is a testament to a band who was put through hell and came out on the other side of it. They may have lost a label, an agent and a member of the band, but they’re the better for it. They may have shown a softer side on this album, they may have grown-up a little too, but they’ll still drink you under the table while shirtless and live to Tweet about it the next day.
Vandoliers are Joshua Fleming, bassist Mark Moncrieff, drummer Trey Alfaro, fiddler Travis Curry, electric guitarist Dustin Fleming, and multi-instrumentalist Cory Graves. You can find out more about them at the links below.