james hyland western

​James Hyland (from the album Western available as a self-release)
The characters that James Hyland has collected on Western, his recent release, are living, breathing reminders of the wilderness where the tales unfold. On Western, James Hyland is the engineer for the maiden voyage, The Great Iron Horse making a mighty racket barreling towards the Pacific Ocean in “First Westbound Train”. He is the man behind the star with a peace maker by his side with “Texas Ranger” and the bowler hat piano player competing for tips with the lovely ladies upstairs in “Top Floor”. Western introduces the people and places that braved the American West, then and now. His songs welcome a wild land and its inhabitants, men and women already in residence as ‘new people flood this land’, the native population reminding the immigrants that ‘if it wasn’t for us this would all be Spain” in “The Edge of Comancheria”. Western sees blood cover the land in ““Today’s a Good Day to Die (Battle of the Greasy Grass)” as drums warn of broken treaties on the mighty rumble coursing underneath “White Men in the Black Hills” while James Hyland becomes the voice of the spirits roaming the land as “Ghosts”.
 
The theme of Western comes as a history lesson, James Hyland using his pen to describe how the transcontinental railroad changed the American West. The movie screening times for Western drifts between time zones, the calendar changing like clocks as modern times dial in a Country station as it heads up Highway 101 in “Dark and Weary World” while James Hyland offers a political announcement for the suffragette movement with “Swing It Your Way”. Co-founder and frontman for South Austin Jug Band, James Hyland spent seven years polishing the tales for Western, recalling that ‘I wanted to write something between Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton and Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger with a touch of the South Park guys’ Book of Mormon and Tom Waits’ Big Time, so I ultimately wrote a play about a musician driving through the night, switching between two satellite radio stations. On one, a DJ is hosting a western-novella-themed show, and on another, the DJ is playing more modern Americana. This album is the music from that play’. A dark groove wiggles like mescaline-laid railroad lines when big money connects the coasts in “They’ve Come to the Right Place” as Western softly picks a swaying tune for “Full Moon” and pens a sweet song for a guitar in “Weather on the Wood”. James Hyland sets a career goal with “Nashville Song”, looks back on “Hill Country Nights” with a smile, and wears the skin of a “Ramblin’ Man” heading to Tennessee circa 1881.
 
Listen and buy the music of James Hyland from AMAZON
 
For more information, please visit the James Hyland website
 

---