Rayland Baxter — Wide Awake | Review
Sometimes you get into an artist work for the oddest reasons. One day while searching through McKays to find some new music in their extremely large used CD section I came across Rayland Baxter. I saw a man with a fantastic mustache (which I am very jealous of) and had to know what he was doing. I pulled out my phone and added one of his albums to my Apple Music playlist. I shared listening to his Soho EP first, which although very nice, didn’t give me the full picture of his music (as it is just him and his guitar). I chose his 2018 album, Wide Awake, to listen to and was very pleased with my experience. I love this brand of indie rock. It isn’t full of all the tropes that much of the genre has been filled with in the past 10 years: snaps, hand claps, ohs, and 80 chillwave. Sure, it definitely has it takes some derivatives from other alt/indie rock, but his album sounds unique to him. My biggest surprise was Rayland’s songwriting. Many songs in the genre have been plagued by fairly hollow storytelling or shallow lyricism. Baxter tells engaging stories on this record. Baxter originally hales from Bon Aqua, TN, a town southwest of Nashville that you could blink and miss off heading towards Memphis. His father is famous guitarist William “Bucky” Baxter, who has played along side Steve Earle, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Sheryl Crow to name a few. He could start his trajectory towards his current career after quitting the lacrosse team in college after returning to the Baltimore, Maryland campus from being expelled for fighting. He would start a cover band and begin the path of becoming the songwriter he is today. Wide Awake is Baxter’s third album and a great showcase of his songwriting skills, as he wrote all the songs on the album. Grab yourself a coffee and prepare to be wide awake for our journey into this record.
“Strange American Dream” opens the record with a ominous tone. The song is Baxter’s response to all the negativity and tension that was stirring up at the time: the Trump presidency, mass-shootings, and explosive rhetoric. The opening lines give a very fatalistic view us and our current place in the world at the time. It’s the lines, “Well I was sure that everything was goin’ fine/ Until you took the shot and killed me with your mind”, that really zero in on the antagonistic and dangerous rhetoric that many on the right have been spewing at the time. The notions of world tension, fear, and greed all come together with the chorus, “But now the whole world is wired up/ On the red, white, and the green/ And all the boys and girls are growin’ up/ In a strange American dream”. He does a great job capturing the confusion, disappointment, and disgust that many of us were feeling about the state of affairs in the United States. The song takes on somewhere between an indie rock and indie country album. Baxter’s vocals are fantastic on the record. It almost gives off the tone of some 70s rock tracks with its more sunny delivery. He got me hooked with this opening track.
“Casanova” is Rayland’s song about being a sugar baby to a sugar momma. First off, Baxter is very upfront on his monetary motivation, “Money, all I ever want is money/ But I never wanna work for the money/ So I borrow the money from a woman?”, showing the sugar momma route was his best bet. The two have never met and she tells him regularly to behave and be good. That isn’t what Rayland has planned, “Got a hole in my pocket and I’m running around/ Spending all of her money on drugs and things”. This ends up getting him into a bit of trouble, “Throw my pennies in the well/ Waking up in jail/ ’Cause I never paid attention”. Like the chorus says he’s back in the hole he started off in. It’s a full journey of young man going completely awol on someone else’s money, not worrying about the consequences that this may bring. The music video is a cheeky take on a man on the run from the cops while living it up and flirting his way along. I feel like if Apple was still doing those iPod commercials, this track would be a obvious choice. It’s pure indie rock that will get you moving. The sound works great with the lyrics. It’s another highlight off the album for me.
“Angeline” sees Baxter’s metaphorical journey of love with a woman related to sailing the seas. Angeline is the beautiful and trusty “ship” he can guide through the world on. His fantastical journey does guide you through the honeymoon period of their relationship, “When I’m alone at night and I wanna sit with you/ I close my eyes and shut the door and think about navy blue/ On all your sweaters, on all your shoes/ All I ever wanna do is be with you”, into their more formative period. As their seas become more angry, “But every now and then/ I get the feeling like you don’t want me around/ Every sword and dagger/ That you never wanted me to keep around”, Rayland looks to the stars for their fate much like a captain at sea. It becomes clear that the ocean he sees her as could be the home he wants to live on or the medium by which he gets to his next destination. The sonic landscape continues this sunny mix of guitars, keys, and bass that give off the yellows, oranges, and reds of 70s artwork.
“79 Shiny Revolvers” is Baxter’s sort of take on The Beatles “Happiness is a Warm Gun”. This can be heard in the call back to the song with the “Bang, Bang, Bang” at the end. The revolvers are seen as both a need and a threat through Rayland’s lyrics. There is also a hint at gun control with the lines, “Now everybody talking about it/ So we can talk about it too/ You really wanna save the world man?/ Well, I wanna save it too/ We could blow ’em away/ The American way”. You definitely hear the news of the time flooding into the song as Rayland sings of cameras being on to catch and the black and blue (a potential call on to the police and police violence). I feel his building distain for limited action on the numerous mass shootings in the lines, “There’s a killer on the run/ But look at all the pretty flowers brought by everyone/ What a beautiful parade/ Even though he got away”. Unlike the call back to “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, the other fix Rayland seems to be itching more is the loss of life and injustice. I can get the air of a Beatles-esque tone here. The lush strings give a beautiful floral like motif to this track. I think it’s probably my favorite on the album.
“Amelia Baker” sees Rayland falling head over heels for the songs titular character. She is all he can think about. How he wishes he was with her, but he’s not. The song gives off an obsessive vibe as he pines over a Hollywood star that he loves but can not have. This comes off in the lines, “Is she my friend or my enemy?/ I wanna know, she’s so far away from me/ If only I could touch her now/ I would die”. He waxes on what she would think of him, he has was her rumored love, and how she’d react to his feelings. The chorus sees Rayland to make heads or tails over his starlet obsession all while repeating her name, “I don’t know why I’ve been feeling this way about it all/ The trouble is all up in my head, in my head/ ’Cause I can’t tell the difference between beginning and end/ Amelia Baker/ Amelia Baker”. Baxter gives the song a more ominous tone with its acoustic opening. The carries into the building piano and electric guitars that explode into the chorus. It’s an effective way to give color to the obsessive lyrics.
“Without Me” is Baxter’s break-up song to a woman that wants to hold on to him for a bit longer. The track is much softer than the prior songs. The mix of acoustic guitar, strings, and the soft female backing vocals give the song a solemn fragility. The initial verse places us at a party she’s invited him to that he’s so ready to be away from. He’s tried to break the news to her the day prior, but she seems to be in denial, “Do you remember yesterday?/ Did the conversation we had about life just float away?/ I sat you down, I chose to say/ You’re gonna be better off without me in the way”. We go through this break up as he tells her he feels stuck in their relationship into him beginning to fell lonesome on his own. The last verse see Rayland wondering about all the things she’s been doing since they broke up. Neither has contacted the other since. The song ends with her being fine without him.
“Hey Larocco” is one of my favorites off this album. I love the dreamy indie rock sound the track has. The song tells the story of Baxter being behind bars after a fight that occurred between him and Mike Larocco. I do have to wonder if there is some autobiographical nature to the song as he references Baltimore and fight, something he was kicked out of a Baltimore college for. The story all unfolds in the song’s second verse, “I believe it was a Friday night/ Charlie avenue bowl fight/ A lightning bolt light to Mike Larocco’s head/ He was angry at a friend of mine/ I’m a saviour when I have the time”. The chorus calls out Larocco for snitching on him and seemingly putting him behind bars for the altercation. The 3rd verse sees Baxter letting them know that though they may think he comes from money, he doesn’t and that guy he was saving was the trouble maker. I found this song to be very engaging when I was listening to it.
“Sandra Monica”, a play on Santa Monica, California, is a song about a girl that loves and leaves him. The song is much more subdued with this delightfully spacey slide guitar echoing through the background.The night before he was all “in love” with Sandra Monica behind his closed door. When he awakes, she’s gone and he’s left all alone in his long t-shirt and bolo tie. She gave no reason for her departure. In the end he’s left to only love himself, “ lay my head back down in my living room/ With my cowboy hat and my cowboy boots/ Now the ruby red moving up and down/ And my right hand man is my woman now”. Although a quite enjoyable track, I find many of the others to grab my attention more.
“Everything to Me” is a very simple love song.The track opens with these bright electric guitar chords that blend into a sunny sea of instrumentation. Rayland opts for very straightforward lyrics about his feeling towards the woman that means the world to him. It gives off the feelings of telling the person you have fallen for that you love them for the first time. There’s that sense of not being able to put your feelings into words, “ I wanna tell ya/ Something about me/ But I don’t know where to start/ You were the first one/ To hold me the right way/ For that I’m owing you my heart”. It’s sweet. It’s a pure admission of love as he repeats, “You mean everything to me”.
“Let it All Go, Man” ends the album out as Rayland tells you to let go off all that negativity you have been holding onto. The song has a much more serious tone. The singing of a slide guitar haunt the background while Rayland’s vocals and acoustic guitar are on the main stage. The verses paint this miasma of tension through very vivid language, “Contemporary sadness and fire-breathin’ dragons are everywhere” and “As the Mayan and the misanthrope argue in the street/ Angelic eyes of sadness and fire-breathin’ dragons are all I see”. We get various questions on how we have all gotten to this state of mind, be it fame, fear, or madness. The ending of the choruses tell you release this tension, “Here we are, just waitin’ to explode/ Let it all go, man…”. It’s not a “get over it”, but more about letting go of this toxicity before it takes you down into this apocalyptic imagery you’ve created. It’s a nice book end to various misadventures and thoughts Baxter has created here.
I really enjoyed my journey through this album. I loved his brand of indie/alternative rock. It sounds very fresh and honest. His songwriting was something that I found to be quite engaging throughout the album. Usually albums with this more rootsy, upbeat indie sound come off extremely shallow and empty lyrically, but this one pays off well. His most recent record is the short studio album Good Mmornin released July of 2019. As goofy as the appeal of someone’s awesome stache can be, it turned me onto an album I really enjoyed. I plan to check out some of his other works next and revisit some of the acoustic EP/single releases after hearing what his studio records sound like. My overall favorites:
- “Strange American Dream”
- “Casanova”
- “Angeline”
- “79 Shiny Revolvers”
- “Amelia Baker”
- “Hey Larocco”
My overall rating: 8.5 out of 10 Shiny Revolvers
Rayland Baxter’s Website: http://www.raylandbaxter.com
