All tagged Stranger Album Review

Band of Heathens: Stranger

We as a nation, as a people, as music lovers in the age of social media face an odd conflict. Americana and “southern” identity while not wholly unapproached, is again under the bright lights of the musical landscape. The contrast of artists you hear on the radio and indie scenes that are “dirt road, cold beer, eagles and AMERICA!” to the soft spoken compassion and activist songwriting of others saying “listen, look, we have to protect those who need us.” It can be confusing and polarizing. Are we acting on the same information? Is that information filtered to us correctly? This isn’t intended to lay out some “secret liberal leftist agenda” or convince you to “Stand By,” so put your papaw’s shotgun away and don’t come hunt me down in my little corner of southwest Virginia paradise. It’s an important backdrop for an album that asks by and large what we’re all asking in our confused southern drawl, “huh?” While some people are firmly set in their beliefs, there are a lot of people who just wonder, how do we make sense of any of this? What agency and impact do I have? What choice do I have? Does my voice matter?