Fresh Track: Buckley “Devil Slide”

More often than not I’ve seen the words “country rock” and “crossroads” associated with Buckley and the always on the road songwriter’s tunes. Those things certainly apply to the wandering minstrel’s work, but peeling back the layers of his music sees more than dusty country roads and Jayhawks references.

On ‘Devil Slide‘ off of his latest release, Las Cruces, the artist unveils glimpses of influence that are reminiscent of the softer side of 90s grunge and flannel clad rockers going acoustic on MTVs Unplugged. As his voice enters the track as a whisper along slow picked acoustic and rippling cymbal hits, there are tinges of Kurt Cobain ala Nirvana Unplugged in New York or Eddie Vedder’s vocals over a uke. But, there is no uke here. The road weary, sepia tinged ancient photographs of bridges and lone highways of a small Texas town ring out in the instrumentation of these songs and where a title like ‘Devil Slide‘ may initiate visions of Robert Johnson standing with old scratch at the crossroads, its less blues in its tone and more tobacco stained noir in its vibe.

Of the songs on Las Cruces this one hit especially hard, though it always resolves to that slow plod and ache in Buckley’s voice and it has its moments of rock n’ roll, its when the songwriter sings most vulnerably that it cuts the deepest.

Check out the track below and pick up Las Cruces for your record collection. Its one that deserves a spin, again and again.