I am pleased to report that American(a) music is alive and well. I am also pleased to tell you that it won’t be found on popular radio. Not that I’m happy it isn’t getting that type of exposure, but because of the company it would be forced to keep. No, the music I’m talking about is rare. The type of stuff you could spend your life looking for but never find. What you hear on most radio stations is shiny, sure. But it’s all iron pyrite—fool’s gold, as the oldtimers called it, and the most common of the sulfide minerals. Its worth is nothing next to the rarity that is actual gold.
One such rarity is Will Felty from Lubbock, Texas. One listen to anything he has recorded as Cowboy Cold and you know immediately that this is no sulfide material. Cowboy Cold presents, in a way that uses low fidelity (arguably one of the hallmarks of independent American music) as an instrument itself (listen to Death Blues, Cowboy Cold’s 2018 release, and then try to imagine its tracks without the beautiful hiss and hum of the tape machine), stripped-down country music as a precious metal, and “Roadkill” is a perfect example.
From the wandering finger-picked intro to the subtle addition of pedal steel and, throughout, its primary subject matter, Felty delivers “the truth” in his half-whispered, unadorned drawl. It’s within this truth that a rare nugget is to be found: a sardonic understanding of human nature as influenced by technology in general and social media in particular. While the first verse is used to describe a “mown down” animal, the wording and delivery suggest an observer emotionally moved by the sight; the second verse involves the video-captured loss of a human life and offhandedly remarks that it was “like anything else on the news that night,” comparing it specifically to roadkill—a word not used in the previous verse. In both occurrences of the chorus, this detachment from our fellow humans is subtly reiterated, marking “Roadkill” as a confessional as well as deep observation.
Cowboy Cold will be traveling all the way from Lubbock to present his splendid version of country music in person at the Ball of Wax 57 release show, September 14th at the Blue Moon!