Jason Boland Brings Real Country Music to Morrilton

by Julian Spivey
Jason Boland & the Stragglers brought their unique brand of real country music to Morrilton, Ark. on Saturday, Feb. 22 with a terrific set at Jose’s Supper Club.
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Boland is probably the most famous, and certainly one of the best, artists in a traditional sounding subgenre of country music known as red dirt country, popularized by acts from Texas and Oklahoma. Red dirt country doesn’t get much airtime on the radio, but has developed a loyal following from fans discontented with today’s mainstream country music. The medium is obviously influenced by traditional, honky tonk and outlaw style country music and comes off as more naturalistic, true to what many believe country music is supposed to be.

Boland’s honky tonk performance on Saturday night was exceptional from the very first performance of the title track off of his most recent album, 2013’s “The Dark & Dirty Mile” to the finale of his encore somewhere after one in the morning.

Boland’s lyricism is strikingly beautiful in its naturalism/realism and his rich baritone twang rivals anybody in the genre and fits his songs perfectly.

It’s a voice that lends itself incredibly well to rocking honky tonkers like the crowd favorite “When I’m Stoned” and softer tunes like his newest release “Lucky I Guess” alike.

Boland held myself and much of the likely few hundred person audience captivated throughout his entire set that reached almost two hours in length, with the supremely talented Stragglers entrancing us all night with their beautifully sounding backing music – especially Roger Ray on steel and lead guitar and Nick Worley on fiddle, one of the best in the business.

 The Morrilton crowd couldn’t get enough of Boland’s tunes that many of them knew every word of by heart and the singer seemed highly appreciative of the crowd’s response to his work.

His set spanned his entire 15 year career, with classics from the early days like “Pearl Snaps,” “Truck Stop Diaries,” “Shot Full of Holes” and the beautifully written/sung “Somewhere Down in Texas,” one of the many favorites of the crowd, and stuff from his two most recent albums ‘Dark & Dirty Mile’ and “Rancho Alto” (2011). Some of the newer stuff consisted of the excellently traditional sounding “False Accuser’s Lament,” the very song that thankfully introduced me to Boland with its unique take on a story similar to Lefty Frizzell’s classic “Long Black Veil” and “Electric Bill,” which he remarked that he hopes is the first ever “Americana or country song to reference drones” and I believe he’s right. It’s also one of my favorite country lines of the last year thanks to its tongue in cheek quality: “When they need to take a closer look at what it means to love/They can watch with a drone from miles above.”

Being a relatively new fan of Boland’s, it’s hard to find terrific artists like him today unless you almost accidentally come across them online or via the occasional country radio station that has the balls to play them (Morrilton’s own KVOM 101.7 was one of those stations until they castrated themselves recently), so a lot of his older music was introduced to me through this concert and I loved every bit of what I heard. Songs like “Bourbon Legend,” “Blowing Through the Hills” and his version of the Tom Russell written “Gallo Del Cielo” are exactly what I view country music should be and his utterly beautiful “Comal County Blue” is without a doubt one of the best written country songs of the last decade. The performance of it jaw-droppingly good to boot.

Other perfect performances from his Saturday night show include the ball-busting “Pushin’ Luck” from “Rancho Alto,” “Down Here in the Hole” from that same album, the nice story song “Ludlow” from his most recent album and his rocking cover of the Don Williams classic “Tulsa Time,” which he cut on his fantastic 2010 live album “High in the Rockies.”

It’s incredibly hard to choose Boland’s best performance of the night, as I’m sure you could attest to if you’d seen him, but my favorite would have to be the one he capped his encore with “Outlaw Band,” a Bob Childers written song that highlights “High in the Rockies” and sounds like everything red dirt country is supposed to be in five minutes. The song also features one of the greatest fiddling parts to kick it off by Worley that I’ve heard in quite a while.

If you want to hear real country music than Jason Boland & the Stragglers are a revelation. Check them out online if you’ve never listened to them and find them at a local venue live if you want one of the best concerts you’ll ever see in your life.