Country music is as much about image as it is authenticity. Most country artists wear a certain type of drag to indicate their belonging in the genre – whether it’s full-on hats, boots and chaps or a trucker hat and band t-shirt — to signal what part of the Americana spectrum they’re on. That’s one of the most fascinating contradictions of the music: it projects authenticity while invoking a set of time-tested tropes. On Villain Era, outlaw country extraordinaire India Ramey uses that tension to her advantage.
The album opens with the sweeping epic “We Ride at Dawn.” The spaghetti western-style melodrama thunders apace with a grumbling bass line, eerie slide guitar, and Ramey’s booming pronouncements. It’s a tale of revenge against the patriarchy disguised in the story of a band of women who stand up to the bandits who attacked their town. While the song would seem to be one of a long tradition of story songs, Ramey’s performance sells it as something much deeper – a window into the triumph she has experienced after overcoming the abuses that are all too common among women.
