Jason Boland & The Stragglers have been making top-tier Red Dirt country music since 1999. They recently wrapped up their celebratory 25th anniversary tour. Now, they’re getting 2025 started with a new album. Today, (March 14), the band released The Last Kings of Babylon. The album sees them returning to earth after their 2021 concept album The Light Saw Me with a set of autobiographical tracks and songs Boland and the boys hold near and dear to their hearts.
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Ahead of the release of The Last Kings of Babylon, Boland sat down with American Songwriter to discuss the new album and more. During the conversation, he shared the band’s goals and reflected on the last 25 years.
Jason Boland Looks Back on 25 Years with The Stragglers
Jason Boland & The Stragglers released their debut album Pearl Snaps in 1999. Since then, they’ve delivered nine more studio albums, not counting today’s release and a trio of live records. They’ve also toured the country dozens of times and have weathered the passage of nearly three decades of life changes together. Today, they’re one of the tightest live bands you’ll have the pleasure of seeing and that chemistry translates to the studio. However, Boland isn’t resting on his laurels.
“I’m just the type of person where I don’t ever feel like we got where we’re going. So, it still feels like we’re in the middle of it, still trying to figure it out,” Boland said. “You’re always trying to play the music that you’d play and write for no other reason than the sake of the song. Then, if you’re going to take it out to the public, you don’t want it to not see commercial success. So, that adds a whole other room of levers and pulleys to go after,” he explained. “I’m happy with the balance we’ve achieved with keeping it in shop and kind of DIY and being able to play across the country and have people come out and enjoy it.”
The Stragglers Have a Simple Goal
Jason Boland and the Stragglers have been working hard at making rock-solid music for 25 years. However, they haven’t found mainstream acclaim or a large amount of commercial success. However, those things aren’t the goal for the band. Instead, they want to make music they can be proud of. To them, money and success are the by-products of the work they put in.
“It’s a weird tight rope to walk to tell people no to things that they have no idea why you’d be saying no to it because it’s what you’re supposed to do,” Boland explained. “I try to surround myself with people who don’t always just agree but get what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. The Stragglers make all the wrong decisions for all the right reasons,” he added.
The band’s real goal is a simple one. They hope to “Make something you’d be proud of, just like anything else. Tons of things that you’ve got your hands in, you just want to feel proud of it. I want to live up to what I know we can do. That’s what drives me. Fortunately, that resonates with people,” he said.
Jason Boland Stays True to His Goals with The Last Kings of Babylon
The Last Kings of Babylon is both a sonic evolution and a return to form for Jason Boland & The Stragglers. Longtime listeners will notice subtle changes in the sound that equate to a razor-sharp band getting sharper over time. From both songwriting and musical perspectives, this album represents some of the band’s best work to date.
“I didn’t consciously come into a more autobiographical album because the last one was a little more out there. It just happened to work that way,” Boland said of the new record. “Once you’re conscious of ‘How is this going to be received?’ You start playing that game in your head. I can’t do that. It’s got to be something that I feel honest with myself and honest with what we’re doing. That gives it that overarching album-to-album and whole career scope,” he added.
Then, Boland explained that he doesn’t just look at each album as a standalone project. Instead, he sees each as a new chapter in the grand narrative of the band. “I like an album that’s kind of like a roller coaster ride. It’s got ups and downs, some rock and some country in it. When you’re laying that out, you’re trying to find a flow within the track listings. Then, step back a few more feet and see the album before and the album where you’re headed. It just has a natural flow to it,” he explained.
Featured Image by Will Von Bolton
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