We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

American Stranger

by The Only Sons

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Immediate download of [12]-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD

     

1.
Cutting Corners: Daddy was an only son That’s probably why he just had one Because one is enough Yeah one is enough With an iron will and time to kill Took to doing as most young men will As most young men will Just trying to get their fill Cutting corners Never taking his time Just cutting corners Never waiting on that finish line But there’s no race worth the win If you gotta cut corners my friend Momma always did what was right Never so much as ran a red light A red light Kept both her hands in sight With one on the way Spent two weeks pay One a couple of tickets Hoping that the lottery will break But it won’t break - it owes her one she thinks She's Cutting Corners Never taking her time Just cutting corners Never waiting on that finish line But there’s no race worth the win If you gotta cut corners my friend And I tried my best to not be like them But I’m my daddy’s only son And my momma’s youngest one I'm Cutting Corners Never taking my time Just cutting corners Never waiting on that finish line But there's no race worth the win If you gotta cut corners my friend --------------------------------------------------------
2.
Put Up A Fight: Been broken Been fixed Been swung at Been hit Been stranded Been found Been banged up Been face down I’ve been face down But now I’m gonna put up a fight Been a sinner Been a saint Been in trouble Been saved Been a stranger Been a brother Been on fire Been smothered I’ve been smothered But now I'm gonna put up a fight -------------------------------------------------------
3.
Warning You 03:25
Warning You: You’re as sure as steel Both hands on the wheel Though you've no one left to turn to I’m Warning You Gather up your things Let that telephone ring You’ve already heard the news I’m Warning You Now I am telling you son If you are gonna love someone You’re gonna take a bullet or two And I’m just warning you Because you ain’t bulletproof And she’s gonna have a lot to unload on you And just like a friend She welcomed you in But there was no table set for two I’m warning you And you felt assured By the sound of your words Though you always did speak too soon I’m warning you ---------------------------------------------
4.
Just My Luck 03:38
Just My Luck: If the third try’s the charm That’s two tries too long It’s just my luck And if you need a pair to win They sure aren’t in my hand It’s just my luck It's just a roll of the dice The horses make the last turn But yours ain’t in sight If we're drawing straws Mine is never that tall It’s just my luck If there's nothing left to be said And you got the last word in It’s just my luck Well enough is enough I’ve been betting for too long on a bluff And it’s tough Man, it’s tough But that’s just my luck ---------------------------------------------
5.
The Devil Does: Do you swear you saw salvation Sneaking out the back door? Oh, the devil does Do you miss the way mercy Used to lie across your bed? Oh, The devil does And you were born to lose Yes, it’s sad but true That you were born to lose Yes, you're living proof But you keep right on winning just because Oh, the devil does Do you fear that forgiveness Will never return your calls? Oh, the devil does Do you remember when redemption Loved to wear your ring? Oh, the devil does -----------------------------------------------
6.
Standing Water: With a mind like a ditch You may need someone to drag you out of it May need more than a chain or a winch In these lowlands when it rains You can bet it won’t be dry for days You can bet those clouds from the plateau are here to stay Standing water Is enough to drown Splintered wood under dried paint Sometimes you can’t help but relate Sometimes the best way to get by is to scrape There are ghosts on the wind They blow this way every now and again Blow this way to remind what could have been It’s gonna keep rising Standing water Is enough to drown -------------------------------------------
7.
Hurt Someone 03:13
Hurt Someone: Oh Mary, would you let me know? Who did it too you and which way did he go? Who left you black eyed and blue? Oh Mary, all you’ve ever done Is been an object of affection But now you’re black eyed and blue If he shows his face around the old town tonight I'm gonna hurt someone Follow his truck down to the county line Just to hurt someone Oh Mary, don’t you shed a tear I cornered him down by the edge of the field He’s more than black eyed and blue Oh Mary, don’t tell them what you saw I’ll lay low 'til they declare it unsolved No more black eyes for you If that old sheriff gets you to talk I'm gonna hurt someone If those blue lights light up my door I’m gonna hurt someone Well Mary, now they’ve hauled me away Because I hurt someone But 20-to-life is worth the wait Just to hurt someone ---------------------------------------------
8.
Death Bed 03:17
Death Bed: He said the devil made him do it Put him up to it Now he’s trying to right all his wrongs He said “You can’t make a living just living” “No, a man’s gotta take what he’s not given” Daddy’s on his death bed Telling me to lean in close When daddy’s on his death bed You know he’s gonna tell the truth He said, “Son, I got one last request:” “Don’t bury me where your mother rests” It was the last thing he said, On his death bed He said, “Your momma was in on it” “But she was no convict” “Just an accomplice for love” She said, "You can’t love a man without loving Each and everyone of his burdens" And I kept my word Buried him far from where momma was You see momma never died Just ran off with the old man’s pride ----------------------------------------------------------
9.
Gone Down Swinging: Are you down for count? Can’t go another round You can’t make it 'til that bell sounds Without falling back down Are you up against the ropes? You always knew it'd come to blows But when your fighting for your life Anything goes And you've gone down swinging before Yes gone down swinging before This ain’t the first time you’ve been knocked to the floor Yes you’ve gone down swinging before Are you pulling every punch? You used to come through in the clutch But now you’re taking a knee When you should be walking it off Are you throwing in the towel? Just gonna let your blood run out If your ambition doesn’t kill you What will?
10.
Temptation 03:24
Temptation: You took a walk in the garden and you bit the fruit Yeah, talking snakes don’t much bother you And the devil on your shoulder swears he’s telling you the truth You got a rusty conscience It squeaks the whole night through Temptation Got the best of you Temptation Who could refuse? Did you satisfy your curiosity? When you bit the apple and drifted into a sleep That no prince could relieve And why would he want too? When you make such good company
11.
Written Word 03:26
Written Word: Written word The written word I have been read aloud the written word I have sang the gospel hymns I have been baptized in the blood on the lamb I have kept my hands where God can see them The word says: Don’t you dare You’d be a fool to think That atonement will get you anywhere Testified I’ve testified Proclaimed he has risen Rolled the stone to the side Still my cup, it is dry And my table unoccupied Where is the blessing The written word implied? Judged I’ve been judged Didn’t know he’d hold a grudge Didn’t know I’d be face to face With the only son of grace Oh, how he put me in my place ------------------------------------------------------
12.
More Like You: Though I am tired I will not rest And though I am starving I got no kind of stomach for this Well Papa Can you tell me How to see this through Because I’ve been trying my damnedest To be more like you Though I am sighing To you I could never complain And though I may be dying To you I will show no pain ---------------------------------------------------

credits

released February 1, 2011

Words and Music: Kent Eugene Goolsby
Stocked Pond Publishing (BMI)

Engineered by Mikey Allred
Produced by Joey Kneiser
Mastered by John Baldwin

Recorded at Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Rockvale, TN
-------------------------------------------
The Only Sons: Forging a Musical Identity

American Stranger arrives at a pivotal moment in the lives of the band members, one that we all face at some point or another: that twenty-something crossroads when one is told, “it is time to decide what you will be; it is time to define yourself. Choose and move ahead accordingly.” Thankfully for those that hear American Stranger, The Only Sons’ choice of direction resoundingly clear. “We view this as a turn-the-corner record,” lead singer Kent Goolsby says of the new album. “[We want it to say] we’re going full time with this thing…we’re focused on this one.” Given the quality of the band’s first two albums (2008’s Young Lungs and 2009’s Steel Hearts), this should come as encouraging, albeit a bit surprising, news to their fans. Quite frankly if those earlier albums, specifically Steel Hearts, lacked focus you’d be hard-pressed to find the proof of it. Whatever the case was, it is clear from talking to Kent Goolsby that this band has decided music is no mere hobby but the business they have chosen, and come Hell or high water, they are committed to making it work. “There’s no race worth the win / If you’re gonna cut corners, my friend,” Goolsby sings on American Stranger’s opening track “Cutting Corners”—a fitting mantra to begin a career-defining album.

It should be noted before getting too far along that focusing on this band’s relative youth is by no means some sort of apology or acknowledgement of inadequacy; to the contrary, it makes American Stranger better in every way. Goolsby says that in large part, American Stranger is a record about entering the “real world” and “feeling…reality and the pressures of growing up. It’s about that struggle.” Thematically, that struggle for self-definition permeates every track of the record. Each grapples with the powerfully influential forces that so define our pasts and presents—family, religion, love—and considers how we apply them to our uncertain futures. It is a fight we all fight; probably it never stops. It is appropriate, then, that many of the songs on American Stranger pack such a figurative punch with track titles such as “Hurt Someone,” “Gone Down Swinging,” and “Put Up a Fight,” the latter of which exemplifies the band’s fighting spirit: “Been broken, been fixed / Been swung at, been hit / Been stranded, been found / Been banged up, been face down…But now I’m gonna put up a fight.”

Aside from a boundless sea of musical support and guidance from some of Murfreesboro’s musical elite, it is perhaps the church from which The Only Sons have gained the most, but not in the ways one might think. Ready to totally invest themselves in the band and eager to establish their own identity as such, the band felt it necessary to move away from Murfreesboro proper and into a bit of self-imposed isolation. But a focused environment free from unwanted influence was not easy to come by. Goolsby says, “we wanted to move away from what we knew, so we moved to the country, and that changed the record.” Call it a blessing, good luck, or what you will, but an opportunity to go rural came when the parsonage of the Rockvale Cumberland Presbyterian Church became too small to house the family of its pastor, bassist Jonathan Merritt’s mother. The church agreed to allow the band to move into the house, a windfall they repay in part by playing in the church’s band during Sunday morning contemporary services—“We enjoy it. Any time we can play music is [time well spent].” The church’s sanctuary also provided the space for the band to record American Stranger, which accounts for the album’s cavernous depth and tone. It may seem uncommon for a church to be so open and supportive of a group of secular young rockers, and if indeed such practice is not “the norm” amongst other congregations, it certainly speaks to the substance of this one.

Appropriate for the place of its recording and its influence on the band, American Stranger is heavy with religious allusion, and some of its best songs exude that influence. “[Religion] is impossible to ignore; we grew up in it. As a kid, it was what you did. It was about being with your friends. We all met at church camp,” Goolsby says of the church’s role in the band’s music, a role that is clear from a cursory glance at the track titles. For most Americans and especially those in the South, religion is something that surrounds us from birth and influences the identities we develop, and such is definitely the case for this album’s sense of self. In “Temptation,” Goolsby seems to channel Tom Petty’s “Refugee” to skillfully contemporize the Genesis story of temptation in the Garden of Eden: “You took a walk in the garden, and you ate the fruit / Yeah talkin’ snakes don’t much bother you.” To borrow another track title from American Stranger, the “Written Word” has impacted us all for better or worse, but in the case of this album, it only enhances its righteousness.

And so well supported, well loved, and well oiled, The Only Sons set out to back up who and what American Stranger says they are. With an inspiring drive to succeed in the ever-changing world of music, this band gives no indication that they will be anything other than a self-fulfilling prophecy—no “Cutting Corners” and all “Put Up a Fight.” Goolsby says that as a songwriter he has to always be open to songs wherever he goes and gives the example of driving through Smithville, TN and seeing a church marquis that said, “Do you worry about where your soul’s going? The Devil Does!” That sign, the likes of which we’ve all seen along so many Southern roads, gave the name to one of the songs on American Stranger, but moreover it touches on a human indifference to spiritual fate and future. If The Only Sons have a musical fate and future, you can bet it is in no one’s hands but theirs. If not, you can be sure they’ll wrench it out of the tightest grip and reclaim it as their own.

-NICK NICHOLS (2011)
This Is American Music


Full Text Article: www.ThisIsAmericanMusic.com/home/2011/1/19/the-only-sons-forging-a-musical-identity.html

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Only Sons Murfreesboro, Tennessee

contact / help

Contact The Only Sons

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like The Only Sons, you may also like: