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We’re in love with Dylan Earl! It’s as simple as that. He’s the perfect mix of 90s country glamour and anti-country sensibilities that gets us all hot and sweaty here at Holler. So imagine our excitement when his brand new album lands in our inbox! And we get to premiere the first song from it! We are living the country dream.
‘Buddy’ is everything we’ve come to expect from one of modern country’s most colourful characters. Pitched halfway between smooth Urban Cowboy country-pop and the irreverence of Bobby Bare singing Shel Silverstein, Earl manages to wrap his silky baritone around the mundanities of modern life and weave them into something profound and deeply relatable. Often as hilarious as they are heart-breaking, his songs feel like comforting foil blankets to protect us from the fall-out of the pre-apocalypse.
Taken from his third album, I Saw the Arkansas - which is being released on the independent 'Y’allternative' label Gar Hole Records on March 10th - ‘Buddy’ lets the listener ride shotgun out on the road with Earl, as he guides us through the many wacky stories, close encounters with the law, dizzying romances, and endless highways of his life.
‘Buddy’ is premiering exclusively at Holler below.
"The song is an amalgamation of experiences both in and around the tour van,” explains Earl about the new single. “It's an attempt to showcase the behind-the-scenes moments that take place every day between stages. Oftentimes folks think that touring is all glamour, but that's not really the case at all. Ask most touring musicians and they'll tell you it can be dirty, scary, sad, smelly and downright dangerous. It's really the moments between the shows that define a crew and can be the most formative. Me and my buddies are out there, undertaking an odyssey of our own volition. Hopefully there's a cold beer and a hug at the end of each drive.'
Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana but “naturalized by the Natural State” as a teenager, Dylan Earl (or “Dearl” as he’s come to be known) has been active in the Arkansas underground country scene for over a decade, first as a founding member of the alt-country band Swampbird and then as a solo performer and songwriter.
Alongside his friends and contemporaries Willi Carlisle, Jude Brothers and Nick Shoulders, Dylan has been heavily involved in carving out space for socially conscious country music in the mid-south region and beyond, and we adore him.
Another thing we absolutely adore here at Holler is running! We’ve spent a lot of time trying to perfect our Best Country Running Songs playlist for optimum runnability, so it was amazing to see Dearl indulging in one of our favourite pastimes.
“Running gives me peace,” Earl says about the video. “While I enjoy the by-product of fitness and being in shape, it's really all about meditation and the psychological fortitude I find with each passing mile. Especially when I'm on tour. Sometimes it's the only moment I have alone and with my thoughts. That mental reset has been an absolute game-changer on the road in regard to my overall happiness and demeanour. When anxiety hits, there's always running and it always does the trick.”
Gar Hole Records | 2023
I Saw the Arkansas is released on Gar Hole Records on March 10th. Click here to pre-save and click here to buy the album.
