reviews |
 Jason Boland and the Stragglers (from the album Hard Times are Relative available on Thirty Tigers) Conversations about just what Country music is are as plentiful as the diversity of the styles in the format that start the dialogue flowing in the first place. On Hard Times are Relative, Jason Boland and the Stragglers don’t try to explain the sound of their recent release, they provide an audio show-and-tell with hard-living and harder loving Country songs. The words have a conscience, playful playing has a good time, confident that the strong backbeat will do its job. Hard Times are Relative stretches out in “Grandfather’s Theme”, presenting family history as a testament of different times, the music guiding the course of the tale on a shifting sonic plate. A Rock’n’Roll Country beat addresses addiction with “Dee Dee O’d” and a caffeinated honky tonk rhythm traces “Tattoo of a Bruise” as Jason Boland and the Stragglers tell an American story, two souls making their way into an adult world while still in their teens on the title track. A theme comes through in the stories of Hard Times are Relative as the album watches the constant changes in the human race, and the current times complicated relationship with the past. Sunny Sweeney joins Jason Boland and the Stragglers on the album opener, harmonizing on “I Don’t Deserve You” as the band spins a slow Country waltz as they warn of respecting the lessons learned with “Do You Remember When”. For two decades, Jason Boland and the Stragglers have brought their music from Stillwater Oklahoma to the planet. When not on their constant tour, Jason Boland and the Stragglers head into the local watering hole to visit with lost-weekend buds as they knock one back with Jack in “Right Where I Began”. Listen and buy the music of Jason Boland and the Stragglers from his website https://www.thestragglers.com/ 
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