Moments ago, White Owl Red released the second single from their forthcoming album, Afterglow, slated to drop at the beginning of 2020.
White Owl Red is the musical offspring of singer-songwriter Josef McManus, and includes Kyle Caprista (drums) , Leah Tysee (backing vocals), and Gawain Mathews (guitars). McManus started out writing folk songs in Chicago, followed by playing at clubs on the Left Coast. His sound, described as “the alt-country Bob Dylan,” rings with savors reminiscent of Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt, the Velvet Underground, and Nirvana.
The band’s prior albums comprise Americana Ash, Naked and Falling, and Existential Frontiers. The latter album accrued beau coup media acclaim, lots of airplay, and hit oodles of playlists; while Naked and Falling was named one of Alternate Root Magazine’s Top 100 Albums of 2017.
A straightforward country two-step number, “I Walk The Line For You” was inspired by the romantic bond between Johnny Cash and June Carter, together with Cash’s first wife, Vivian Liberto. The song explores fidelity, love, desire, and the emotional impact and consequences of personal decisions.
“I Walk The Line For You” opens on twangy country flavors topped by McManus’ tones, drawling and inflected with tasty timbres vaguely reminiscent of both Cash and Bruce Springsteen. A tight shuffling rhythm rides crisp percussion and a fat plonking bassline, as teeter-tottering, rolling guitars imbue the tune with glinting textures.
Gleaming, softly wailing guitar accents infuse the music with washes of crying colors, adding to the elegiac sensation of the harmonics.
McManus’ delicious voice oozes delightful baritone hues, conjuring up memories of Johnny Cash, yet different enough to give the lyrics freshness.
“Whoooaooh / C’mon Mama / I walk the line / Said c’mon Mama / I walk the line / Walk the line for you / You know it’s true / I walk the line for you.”
With “I Walk The Line For You,” White Owl Red delivers delectable old-school country aromas, all capped by McManus’ amazingly satisfying voice.
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