Jason Boland & The Stragglers
Album: Squelch
Label: Proud Souls
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.thestragglers.com

When you think of Red Dirt music what comes to mind 'The Godfather' Bob Childers, Jimmy LaFave, Texas country or the famous small local venue known as "the farm" in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Many artists and groups from neighbouring states of Oklahoma and Texas have often been associated with the Red Dirt music but it isn't always clear what this type of music is. One thing for sure is the name comes from the colour of the soil in Oklahoma especially that of the Stillwater area. Many different types of music can be brought together such as indie, alt-country, folk, rock, blues, Western swing, honky tonk and even some Mexican flavours can form all or part of the Red Dirt genre's unique sound.

Jason Boland & The Stragglers consist of Jason Boland (Vocals, Guitar), Cody Angel (Guitar, Pedal Steel, Resophonic Guitar), Brad Rice (Drums, Vocals), Grant Tracy (Bass) and Nick Worley (Fiddle, Mandolin, Vocals). Squelch will be the eighth studio album released since Jason and Brad formed the group back in 1998.

The opening track ' Break 19' is a connection to truckers that being a slang term for a popular channel used on the CB Radios. In fact, I have had a ball looking up other slang terms that truckers often use on their long journeys. Recently I have been fascinated by the trucker music that came to fruition in the 1970's (a kind of country sub genre) and thinking of this Boland's album title of Squelch is a cracker. Even though it is a term used for blocking out unwanted noise such as that on a trucker's CB Radio it can also be used in this instance to differentiate the type of sounds and music that Jason Boland and The Stragglers are renowned for in comparison to the bro-country and the tailgating overkill of most mainstream country music nowadays.

Red Dirt music has often been described as music with attitude and there's definitely some of that in the track 'Guess It's Ok To Be An A**hole' and the politically edged 'F**k, Fight, and Rodeo' with the big drum and rock guitar beats you can easily imagine the audience rocking out to in a Texas honky tonk. There are some fantastic track titles on the album like 'Heartland Bypass' where there's also some great traditional country instrumentation like the fiddle and pedal steel. There's also some heartfelt emotion on songs 'Do You Love Me Any Less' and 'Bienville'. Another strong element to the album are the lyrics like "lethal injection for a man I didn't kill" and "back home their wrapping presents drinking eggnog by the fire" describing contrasting pictures of a man unfairly waiting on death row and the seasonal activities of his family in the poignant 'Christmas In Huntsville'.

All-in-all there is a great balance of rhythms and sounds, slow and fast paced tracks and a delicious selection of instrumentation. More than anything there is the customary strong voice type and vocals from Boland. There's enough variety and depth here not only for achieving the usual high placing in the Texas country charts and the big turnouts at concerts across the US but for the band, the Red Dirt genre and in particular this album to achieve the greater recognition outside of Texas and Oklahoma that it deserves. There's no denying that in every album released that Boland is a man who stays true to the sound of where he's from and this is described no better than on his website where it says that Red Dirt "was coined by the people making the music - rust in the ground, blood in the dirt. It's real and it's where I come from - and what I refuse to give up, no matter what".

Craig Parry