With his new album Blood Brothers, Dallas Burrow offers folk ditties, country anthems, and campfire singalongs. Throughout the 13-song set, he shifts effortlessly from airy vocals appropriate for a Sunday-morning church service to gritty deliveries more congruent with a Saturday-night bar vibe. In this way, he forges some of his most fully realized and consistently accessible work.
Grounded in heartland imagery (“pretty girl by my side,” “football game on a Friday night”), opener “River Town” features a catchy chorus and dynamic instrumental interplays. Burrow occurs as a credible everyman as he reflects on his rootsy origins. “Starry Eyes,” with its languid drum part and shimmery guitars that recall Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” resonates as dream-pop Americana as much as indie country.
The gospel-inflected “Out My Window” is buoyed by Jonny Grossman’s chorus-dashed keyboards and Taylor Rae’s background vocals. The humorous “Motel 6” is built around a plucky acoustic guitar, Burrow riffing on “the rolling stone”/“ramblin’ man” motif. “A Lot of It Was” shows Burrow taking responsibility for his failures, qualifying his admission by adding, “It wasn’t all my fault / though a lot of it was.”
The title song blends a chugging guitar, Marty Muse’s pedal steel, and a shuffling drumbeat. Burrow depicts a familiar scene: young men drinking in the woods, cutting their arms to mix their blood, and engaging in a ritual of friendship and loyalty. With “Wild Bill,” Burrow plunges into an old-timey/honky-tonk tune, merging bluegrass and pop leanings while fashioning an alt-biography of the notorious Wild West figure.
On “You Go On Ahead,” Burrow pays tribute to someone who served as a role model or mentor while alive and who died first, thus “going on ahead” to the next world, trailblazing even in death. “True Believer” closes the album on a rollicky note, including Jonathan Tyler’s incendiary guitar parts, D. Tiger Anaya’s trumpet, and Mark L. Wilson’s saxophone. Burrow nails a roadhouse vocal that would make Ronnie Van Zandt proud.
With Blood Brothers, Burrow draws from various songbooks, crafting well-limned portraiture and hook-filled narratives. Plus, he strikes that oh-so marketable balance: the headliner who’s decidely noncorporate, the hometown hero who’s still humble, and the guy on the adjacent barstool who’s a little rough around the edges, but in all the right ways.
Dallas Burrow’s Blood Brothers is out June 16 on Soundly Music.
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