Nashville is changing in amazing ways right now, with the biggest difference between the new guard and the old coming in the form of increased aesthetical hybridity, both with rock and hip-hop. Taking on a bit of the former in the new single “Ghost Train” is none other than rising country star Matt Westin, who teams with Tennessee Outlaw Country to give a performance that is as potent as something you would expect to see out of a live roadhouse show exclusively.
URL: https://www.tennesseeoutlaw.com/
There are no limitations placed on the creative output of the electric guitar or the drums in this performance; it’s all about the raw passion, and with Westin’s versatile and melodic vocal leading the charge, there isn’t much that Tennessee Outlaw Country isn’t able to accomplish from beginning to end in this performance. There’s an unbelievable amount of punch to the instrumentation, and although he has quite the challenge in stacking his voice beside all of the chaos this band is creating, our singer doesn’t just prove himself to be good at fronting a fierce rock unit – truth be told, he’s got a verse to match just about any speed you put him at.
These harmonies struck me as being the most acerbic of Westin’s young career, but they don’t relive any of the pressure created by the low-end tones thrust about by the bass. The bassline is startlingly loud in this piece, but the mix separates its presence enough from the guitar parts to create some honest contrast, the best of which comes ahead of the first chorus.
This is one of the first times I’ve ever heard this singer/songwriter experiment with raw sonic tension, but if you’re going to have any band providing it for you in “Ghost Train,” I think Tennessee Outlaw Country is the right crew to do it. You can tell they’re as invested in the guitar-driven rock elements of this track as they are the more pastoral country themes embedded in the very construction of the hook, and though the grooves they put down are about as enormous as any I’ve ever heard in Nashville, they’re still bar rock-style reckless when we need for them to be.
Those who can appreciate the more relentless end of the outlaw country gene pool need to make a point of listening to what Tennessee Outlaw Country and Matt Westin have produced in “Ghost Train,” as it’s easily one of the more satisfying listens out of this genre to emerge from the underground in 2022.
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The fact that this is the first time these two parties have shared a recording studio makes the song all the more marvelous of a listen in my opinion, and had I not known this ahead of virginally hearing “Ghost Train” just over the past weekend, I would never have guessed as much. They’ve got chemistry together that surges through the speakers and makes this one of the most engaging tracks of its kind to come onto my radar, and I for one can’t wait to hear more like it.
Chadwick Easton