Check out the light-hearted new video from country-punk ensemble Vandoliers. Featuring fellow americana stars Joshua Ray Walker and Taylor Hunnicutt, the video begins with an amusing scene at the record label, mocking the country music machine, with the band about to be dropped and the executive demanding a proper country song: “I love you guys. You’re a great band. I love you, but we’ve got to change everything about it.” The solution is to deliver some real honky-tonk at Dee’s Cocktail Lounge. We then launch into the band performing ‘You Can’t Party With the Lights On’, a song with a classic country vibe and sound, and layers of fiddle, pedal steel, and keys. The band are full of swagger and confidence, and the highlight is, of course, the vocal performance of frontwoman Jenni (Gin-ee) Rose with the band’s new ‘friends’. Despite the upbeat sound and the lovers on the dance floor, there is a lyrical undercurrent of melancholy and regret: “I just want to fall in love again // Live for that moment when // The feeling takes hold from within// Lose restraint to desire.” It’s simply great songwriting.
Rose says of the song: “It might sound like a honky-tonk singalong—and it is—but underneath, this song is about the lie of escapism. You can’t party as hard as I was and still be self-aware. That kind of partying is about avoiding your pain, not facing it. We brought in our friends Joshua Ray Walker, Taylor Hunnicutt, and Zach Moulton of Silverada / Jesse Daniel on pedal steel to make it shine.”
The single features on the brand new album “Life Behind Bars”, which is out now. The Texan band’s fifth studio album explores addiction and gender dysphoria, which has culminated in Jenni Rose’s decision to come out as a trans woman. The band worked with GRAMMY-winning producer Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem, Flogging Molly, Lucero) to hone their energy and sound. Check Vandoliers out live this summer across the US or over in the Europe and the UK in November and December. Enjoy.
