Do you ever feel as though time is relentlessly slipping through your fingers, that the world is spinning around, and yet that you cannot seem to do anything except to sit still and watch it all pass you by? That with the escape of every passing moment, it becomes more impossible for you to return to normalcy? It is a paralyzing and terrifying sensation, and one poignantly described in The County Affair’s new Americana single, “Bourbon Breakfast.”
“Bourbon Breakfast” alternates between a sense of resignation and desperation, its general milieu of whiskey-induced numbness is frequently interrupted by a plea to escape its cycle. The singer hopes in vain that he might be able to break free, perfectly aware that he is slowly watching himself slip further and further away. He even cries out to God in a desperate appeal for help. But the song offers no such deliverance.
The County Affair deploys a vast arsenal of instruments familiar to any fan of folk and country ballads, and one that sensitively portrays the lyrics. A relentlessly strumming acoustic guitar and incessant drumbeat provides a constant reminder of passing time. Simultaneously, long held-out harmonies on the pedal steel guitar create a larger backdrop of tension and stasis, often alternating between a mere two chords. A four-note motif on the piano and keyboard, three rising tones followed by an emphatic return to the original note, punctuates the end of each phrase, a final denial of escape.
It might be heavy stuff but have no fear because it’s a song that will have you foot-tapping.
“Bourbon Breakfast” is available on all major streaming platforms.
Written by Jacob Jahiel
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