People have been arguing about what's real country music and what's not. Usually, it involves a lot of finger pointing about lifestyle and upbringing. It's never about the sake of the music. That's a true shame. Most of the records deemed as the real deal today sound even more fake and synthetic than anything a supposed outsider cobbles together for an album. We lose what makes our favorite lovesick George Strait records or classic Willie Nelson songs tick. Thankfully, bands like Midland remain as one of the beacons of a good country today.
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Midland has always been a great band for this sensation. I think back to records like 2019's Cheatin' Songs on their 2019 album Let It Roll. It's a fantastic concept above all else, a woman so dastardly to walk out on her man and cheat on him with another lover. Little details magnify the setting, like how she hates to smoke but her jacket reeks of old cigarettes. Her dodgy behavior brings back the heartache of old songs about a woman scorning her man by sleeping around with someone else.
Good writing aside, Midland thrives within the warm instrumentation of country's past. Let It Roll is a great album for it too, Texas humidity sticking to the twangy bass, finding power in old Alabama album cuts. Moreover, It's the little things that make that album tick. Searing electric and pedal steel guitars, tender chords, and the right mixing to amplify the instrumentation. Their new album Barely Blue spotlights this importance for their best album to date.
Midland Brings Real Country Music Back To Its Essence
Midland enlists country music's best producer Dave Cobb to get them to the finish line. The 8x GRAMMY award winner is best known for aiding Chris Stapleton through his classics like Tennessee Whiskey. Moreover, he produces some of the most acclaimed indie country artists today like Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.
Cobb continues his illustrious track record by giving Midland some stellar warmth to Barely Blue. He seamlessly channels the subtle parts of Texas that make people fall in love with the Lone Star state. Melodies shine bright upon cowboy hats and sunburnt necks alike. There's a ton of pasture to graze in its production. Guitars simmer in the distance, percussion cracks like riding on old rock pathways onto ranches. It's the little things that paint the great American south and Barely Blue plays as a fantastic soundtrack for those sights.
Midland Pens Some of Their Best Tracks to Date
Additionally, Barely Blue excels in its writing as well. Country always thrives within the margins of old fashioned cliche. However, the key always remains in how to amplify the mundanity into distinct experiences. Writing 101 always tells you to 'show, don't tell.' Midland excels here by painting vivid portraits in junction with the gorgeous production.
Take Vegas, where lead singer Mark Wystrach sings about a brief fling with a woman during a trip to Sin City. He yearns for the Southwest plane to delay for just a little while longer so he could spend just a little more time. Sadly, he can only hold onto those memories through old commercials telling him to come back. The tragic irony swings back around when he heartbreakingly recalls the saying 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Similarly, Midland slows things down and tugs at the heart strings on Better Than A Memory. There, Mark achingly ruminates on a partner's past and how, despite his best efforts, she still thinks about him. "You still talk about him in your sleep. And I know that you think he's just some secret you keep," he sighs.
He works hard to try and stick it out because he still deeply loves her too. "If he's still here between us it's too crowded in this bed. Words can't be unspoken but wrongs can be made right" he stresses.
These are all the markings of a stellar band. Country always works at its best expanding on the basis of past glory. Sometimes, it gets deflating when the genre flails away from their instruments and/or clumsily tries rapping. The old Honky Tonk jams, the sandy Outlaw barn burners, and even its poppier love songs make country what it is. Midland, Dave Cobb, and Barely Blue acts as the platonic ideal extension of bygone eras.
