Just because Nashville and modern country music are inextricably linked doesn’t mean there isn’t room for other genres and offshoots, as Dialup Ghost proves with their latest multi-faceted indie rock-meets-Americana album, Donkey Howdy.
Dialup Ghost got their start in 2018 with I’m Fine, I’m Fine, which leaned into the grungier side of garage rock. They handmade their own cassette tapes and eschewed music moguls like Spotify. Four album releases later, Dialup Ghost is back with the eleven-track odyssey that is Donkey Howdy, which serves as “an intentional effort to separate themselves from current alt-country trends and showcase their eclecticism.”
In tracks like “Music City Mockingbird,” Dialup Ghost reflects on the dissonance of recording country music in a big city.
“Music City Mockingbird says ‘Am I wrong?’” sings vocalist and guitarist Russ Finn. “How’s a city bird supposed to sing country songs?” The song isn’t necessarily a critique of imitators; at the end, Finn sings, “Music City mockingbird I want you to stay/Play your pretty songs for me every day.” Unlike the titular mockingbird, however, Dialup Ghost sought to switch up the sound on their new album: “Fiddle, mandolin, and pedal steel have been replaced with synthesizers.”
This new sound is evident in the expansive, seven-minute-long, “The Giving and Taking of Shade”, which combines alt-country guitar with trumpet and organ. The song — a rebuke of a neighbor who carelessly cuts down their pine trees — has a dry wit and edge of anger. “Did State Farm say you had to?/Were they a liability?” asks Finn, before “throwing shade” at the neighbor’s lack of perspective. “Did you even realize the cardinals were at war/With the mockingbirds and robins… Frankly, I don’t think you realize all the beauty that you took.”
In the spirit of many country and punk legends, the band goes on to critique capitalism and consumerist culture as a whole with “Great Vacation.”
Over Jordan Smith’s energizing electric guitar solos, Finn sings, “I’m gonna have a great vacation/When I clock out one final time… There will be no occupation/There will be no corporation/There will be no silly commands.” The song ends with a sing-along section, with all the band’s voices rising in solidarity.
Donkey Howdy follows their 2024 record, May You Live Forever in Cowboy Heaven.
