All tagged Drayton Farley
My memory does not serve me when trying to determine how many artists I saw at last year’s festival, but this year definitely felt like more. My roster for this year checked in at nearly 60 sets. Not all sets were witnessed from start to finish and many were short sets at industry parties. Nonetheless, with a lineup of this magnitude, there were a massive number of artists I made a point to see.
Fueled by the calloused blue-collar souls and dusty, tattered, jeans of the working way of life, Drayton Farley has become the poet of the Everyday Man. Enveloped in the craft of capturing the rural heartbeat of America in a mere collection of lyrics, Farley continues his troubadour musings with his latest release, Twenty on High, featuring 10 tracks steeped in intricate detail and emotion - a trait Farley demonstrates flawlessly.
At first listen of Drayton Farley’s new album, A Hard Up Life, it’s hard not to draw comparisons between his voice and Tyler Childers. However, don’t stop there and dismiss him as nothing more than a mimic, as you’d be missing out on one of the best albums so far of 2021. An Alabama native, Farley has experienced his share of sadness, which, as we all know, is great fodder for songwriting: A well-paying job with the railroad that left him depressed and alone in cities far from his new bride, a childhood spent growing up in a dying town. With experiences like these, you can’t help but listen to the honesty and heartache in his words. A Hard Up Life, is just that -- an album dedicated to the working man and his daily struggles. Fourteen songs cover a range of tough subjects like addiction, a life you can’t escape from, dead-end jobs and poverty, but it’s not all sad songs. There are songs like “Atmosphere” and “Dear, Haven,” that even out the rest of the record with their sweet undertones.
Imagine a dark and somber version of Merle Haggard’s, “Working Man Blues," and you’ll have the song, “Blue Collar.” The wavering voice of Farley from the first line sets the mood for the song.
