Jason Boland & The Stragglers have been one of the biggest bands in the Red Dirt scene for more than two decades. In that time, they’ve released a stack of great albums that have received praise from fans and critics alike. However, one stands out from the rest of their discography. Their 2021 album, The Light Saw Me, was an ambitious and creative album with interesting themes and stellar songwriting. It’s also one of the band’s most underrated releases.
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Due to their place in the genre, no one expects Jason Boland & The Stragglers to pull in Wallen or Combs-level streaming numbers. However, they still reach plenty of Red Dirt fans and have stacked up some impressive numbers for a largely independent act. Tracks from their more popular releases like Pearl Snaps, High in the Rockies, and Comal County Blue have garnered tens of millions of streams. However, the bulk of The Light Saw Me has only received tens of thousands of streams, and that’s a real shame.
[RELATED: Jason Boland and Shooter Jennings Talk Boland’s New Concept LP, ‘The Light Saw Me’]
What Makes The Light Saw Me So Great?
Jason Boland & The Stragglers were thinking outside of the country music box when they put The Light Saw Me together. It’s a concept album about a cowboy from the 1800s who gets abducted by aliens and travels through time to the 1990s. He’s ripped away from his life, his wife, and everything he knows, and listeners get to follow the whole mind-boggling and heartbreaking journey. However, the album’s tracks offer more than an ambitious story.
On one hand, the fantastical story of this abductee traveling through space and time serves as a new way to look at old questions. The Light Saw Me is an intelligent and existential album that questions existence, love, and time through the lens of a science fiction plot. More than that, Boland pulls from historical and religious accounts of lights in the sky to build the experience of the album’s protagonist. Things like the conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, the light witnessed by Joan of Arc, and other ancient stories helped inform the narrative.
Three tracks near the middle of the album–“Transmission Out,” “Transmission In,” and “Future”–play like one long song. As the sequence goes on, the instrumentation and arrangement change from classic to modern, marking the passage of time in a subtle and genius way.
Jason Boland & The Stragglers Delivered
The Light Saw Me isn’t just an ambitious album with aliens and time travel. It also fits sonically with the rest of Jason Boland & The Stragglers’ discography in that it’s a rock-solid Red Dirt country album. When taken together, the songs present an intriguing narrative. However, they don’t lose any quality when played as standalone tracks.
For instance, “A Tornado & the Fool” sees the protagonist dealing with what he’s witnessed with the support of his wife. Officials come to his house to serve papers and explain away the phenomenon. It’s very much the “I know what I saw!” portion of the story. At the same time, it’s about a love that allows one to weather any storms life can conjure. The song’s second verse discusses a tornado forming in the sky and ends with what may be the heart of the track. If you wonder the reason why I’m smiling / It’s because I know her love will keep me warm. / Yeah, we’re the kind of folks that kinda like a storm.
More Standout Standalone Tracks:
- “Here for You”
- “Straight Home”
- “Restless Spirits”
- “The Light Saw Me”
The Light Saw Me is waiting to be streamed across all digital platforms.
Featured Image by Will Von Bolton
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