Less than two weeks before the release of his album Wide Awake (July 13th via ATO), Rayland Baxter has offered a new song from the Butch Walker-produced project. “79 Shiny Revolvers” was the first song Rayland wrote during his three-month long isolation quest at Franklin, Kentucky’s secluded Thunder Sound Studios. He composed fifty songs there, ten of which eventually became Wide Awake.
“79 Shiny Revolvers” is, in Rayland’s own estimation, one of the most important songs he’s ever written. Its lyrics burst with irony and cutting humor to interrogate our nation’s fixation on guns: “You really wanna save the world, man / well, I wanna save it too / we can blow em away / the American way.”
Says Rayland, “’79 Shiny Revolvers’ is a satirical and sensitive song about the shortcomings of our human race. I watch and I write, not only as an onlooker but as a participant. As the world continues to swing around the sun, I cannot help but notice that we are good people. However, our shortcomings have been highlighted by a long line of imperfect decisions. Leonard Cohen died the day I wrote this song.”