Southern Gothic

Listen while you read:  So new, it's not even released yet!

White bird on the old church steeple
Spanish moss hanging in the setting sun
Every house has got a Bible and a loaded gun

We got preachers and politicians
'Round here, it's kinda hard to tell which one
Is gonna do more talkin' with a crooked tongue

This town's got the good Lord shakin' his head
Lookin' down, thinkin' we ain't heard a word he's said
A word he's said

Bad times in southern gothic
In the garden of good and evil
Devil out here, who woulda thought it
In a town full of God-fearin' people

Dogs and deadbolts guard the night
Nothin' left to do but kneel and pray
We got a church on every corner
So why does Heaven feel so far away?
Far away

Must be something in the muddy water
Turns the whiskey 'bout as sweet as sin
Every drunk in town can sing a Brown-Back (?) hymn

Good fences make good neighbors
Good neighbors make good lovers, too
When your man ain't home, any man will do

This town's got the good Lord shakin' his head . . .

High on home-grown, smokin' that brimstone
Mama ain't stoppin' poppin' that 'contin
No happy ever after, waitin' on the Rapture now

Bad times in southern gothic . . . 

~ Dan Tyminski, Jesse Frasure & Josh Near (for Tyminski)

This song is so new, it hasn't even been released yet! It's so new, there were no lyrics to be found. (Hence my ? on a word I wasn't sure I heard correctly. I think it may be a variation of the "Red-Back Hymnal," a nostalgic staple for gospel singers.) It's so new, I'm not even sure yet how I feel about it. Dan Tyminski, a native of Rutland, Vermont, has been a member of Alison Krauss' back-up band, Union Station, for 25 years. He strikes out on his own with the release of Southern Gothic on October 20, going by his last name, Tyminski.

I am not a fan of disparaging people based on where they live. That may be a direct result of having spent most of my life in New Jersey, and you know what most of America thinks of New Jersey! I can get downright defensive of my home state, especially the area where I live, which is nowhere near the New Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway. So this song, which appears to take aim at those who live in the deep South, presents a problem. As if anticipating a negative reaction to the song, Tyminski had this to say about it:

"That song, and a lot of the record, is holding the mirror up to society for me. It's taking a look at the world, not judging, not saying you have to do this, or shouldn't do this, or might be better . . . just an observation of some things that go on in the world. And throughout the record, there are a lot of those truths for me, and 'Southern Gothic,' I thought, was the most fantastic, visual piece of work, that it just made sense to do a record."

So resisting the urge to travel back to "Harper Valley PTA," I will concede that the song is about the struggles we all face between the light and the darkness, no matter where we call home. Religion, guns, politics, crime, addictions, infidelity, hypocrisy . . . it's all in there. And it's everywhere.

I think it's a good song. And Dan Tyminski is satisfied with it: "It's country, poppy, swampy, bluegrassy, churchy - I hopefully can just, at the end of the day, call it music."