Southerland are an up-coming duo, who will release their debut EP – Boot Up – on Friday 28th May 2021 through Sony Music Nashville. Produced by Greg Bates, the seven song project is available for pre-save here. We review the new EP by Southerland here.
Rising country duo Southerland will release its debut EP, Boot Up this Friday, May 28, 2021. The seven song EP includes the previously released singles ‘Thing Is,’ ‘Little Bit of You’ and ‘Along Those Lines’ as well as four all-new songs that showcase the duo’s smooth vocals and traditional country harmonies. With every song co-written by the duo, the project is immensely cohesive – masterfully produced by Greg Bates.
What Southerland have masterfully accomplished in this EP is to bring back the traditional, authentic country sound of their roots but shape it for the modern time, whilst managing to create a sound that is uniquely theirs and from the opening bars of ‘Boot Up’ that sound is immensely compelling. The project showcases a duo that are made for the love circuit, kicking off with the bombastic opener ‘Boot Up’ that offers a throbbing bass breakdown, a swaggering sound that is brought back on later track – ‘Dance.’ The latter is Brooks and Dunn in feel, but sonically Southerland about a girl only being interested in a guy for one thing – as a dance partner. It offers a blistering guitar solo and the catchy chorus ‘When she wants to dance / Buddy there’s your chance if you want it.’
Throughout the duo bring back their authenticity, celebrating blue-collar roots. So on ‘Came Out of Nowhere’ – the only track that Greg Bates didn’t have a hand in, co-written with acclaimed songwriter, Jessi Alexander – the duo celebrate blue collar roots and the towns that are the backbone of America couched in meaty harmonies and instrumentation. ‘Straight from a place that you never heard of / Hours on a clock that somebody burned up / You think it just fell out of thin air / But everything right here starts way out there.’ It’s tender and solemn in its awe and a charming sentiment that is brought back in ‘Along Those Lines’ – a soulfully irresistible track.
Of course, the duo elsewhere offer toe-tapping celebrations of women. On ‘Little Bit of You’ the duo sing ‘baby at the end of a long hard day, a little bit of you goes a long way‘ and on ‘Might As Well Be Us’ they showcase the depth of their twanging vocals, singing about the longevity of love. ‘Some things gotta last forever / Might as well be us.’ Most spectacularly though is the final track, ‘Thing Is’ – a track that steps straight out of a honky tonk. It has a traditional feel, moving with a slow and lilting swaggering pace. ‘The thing is she’s got whatever that thing is.‘ More than anything, the track is immensely fun, on the track they tap more than ever into the traditional-country revival sound in this twanging, toe-tapping celebrations of a woman.
