Music Review: Dirt Emo Vol. 1
It is perhaps not very flattering to say that you got into someone's music because you gave up someone else's, and you needed a substitute, a voice to fill the hours, to fill the empty space in your heart. But that was Lent 2019, and I gave up Noah Gundersen, and I needed Ruston Kelly. Dying Star was on repeat, and no one else came close. His voice is comforting, somehow soft and scratchy at the same time, a little bit of a burr on what would otherwise be a high, clear tenor.
Several people have asked me in the past weeks to explain his genre, and I can't. It's not country, but it's southern. It's not bluegrass, although you can hear the influence. It's not rock, but it's also not folk. It's not Americana, and it's not stomp-clap (thank God). It's.... dirt emo, the genre he coined, and describes as "like crying in a barn or while holding a banjo." Dying Star was a rock album, despite not really being rock music, and Dirt Emo vol. 1 is covers of his influences: Dashboard Confessional, Wheatus, Saves the Day, blink-182, Taylor Swift, Maybelle Carter (Weeping Willow is traditional, and predates Maybelle by a couple hundred years, but you know what I mean), and My Chemical Romance.
It's exactly what I'd expect from someone who is roughly the same age as myself: barring Maybelle and Taylor, these were the bands on the alternative radio stations when we were high-school age. You can hear how formative these bands were to him.
I was homeschooled, and so these bands (at least some of them) arrived later in my life. To be frank: I didn't even know "All Too Well" was a Taylor Swift cover, I just thought it sounded good.
The record is brief, really an EP: 8 songs, 31 minutes, with one of the songs being an even more acoustic version of something that already sounded acoustic to me. If he's going to put out 4 or 5 volumes of covers between full-lengths, this would make a good double LP, and I'm already looking forward to the next volume.
Favorite track: "At Your Funeral," far and away. But it's all good: the entire feel of the EP, despite it all being sad music, is that it was just friends having a good time singing at home, happy and grounded, like the flip side of Halloween's angst and darkness.
I saw his show last week: at first, he seemed nervous, and his voice sounded tight, but with the sold-out crowd of around 400 singing along to every word of almost every song (setlist had a good sampling from all 3 albums!) everything loosened up, people were dancing, it was great.
I was unexpectedly moved: he's had a rough start, and I hope he finds the success he deserves, and that it doesn't destroy him. You get the feeling that the next tour is going to be in stadiums. The music is that good, and the band is that tight. If you get the chance, go see them now.
